September 25, 2001
By Veronica Mixon
VA Savoir, Jacques Rivette's rather
long French comedy about the complexity of relationships
is funny, amusing and often tedious. The story
concerns a series of characters that are anxious
about their lives and decide to flirt with destiny
during a brief run of a play in Paris. The star
of the play, Camille (Jeanne Balibar) is back
in Paris after a three-year absence and she's
curious about her former obnoxious boyfriend,
Pierre (Jacques Bonaffé). She has been living
in Italy with the play's director, Ugo (Sergio
Castellitto). Nevertheless, confronting her past
in Paris proves to be problematic.
Meanwhile, Ugo is worried about poor ticket sales
and he's obsessed with finding a long-lost play
("The Destiny of Venice" by 18th century Italian
playwright Goldoni). While searching for the manuscript,
he meets Do (Hélène De Fougerolles). After an
disturbing evening with Pierre and his wife, Sonia
(Mariane Basler), it's clear that Pierre still
has some feelings for Camille. She toys with the
notion of reuniting with him while Ugo develops
an attraction for Do. When he visits a private
library in Do's home, he clashes with her malcontent
brother, Arthur (Bruno Todeschini) and befriends
her mother (Catherine Rouvel). Arthur is a devious
guy and he's having an affair with Sonia. As the
play's run slowly reaches the end, all of the
characters must face their mistakes and make clear
decisions about their lives.
Like most French relationship comedies, there
is a lot of talking. Unfortunately, the play within
the play doesn't help to explain the basic conflict.
What is real and what is false or fictional in
the lives of these people? Sometimes, the decision
to move on with our lives and abandon the comfortable
but difficult relationships that we know is the
best thing. That's certainly the lesson that Camille
learns. And, once she lets herself develop a friendship
with Sonia, she knows that Pierre is better off
in Paris with his wife. I think Ugo's obsession
with finding the play is a metaphor for the passion
he feels which Camille, at present, ignores while
they're in Paris. This loving couple sleep in
separate rooms, hardly ever kiss and never make
love on screen. But, they are a working couple
because they play's production is important to
them, both.
VA Savoir never gets boring but
the length Rivette takes to tell the story does
make the film tedious in spots. It's most amusing
when Pierre totally flips out and locks Camille
in a spare room. Also, I think Rivette is saying
that women seem smarter and possibly more capable
of figuring out the complexities of relationships.
Furthermore, all of the men in the film are overly-emotionally
in some intriguing way.
