I don't Kiss
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| J'embrasse pas | |
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| Directed by | André Téchiné |
| Written by | Isabelle Coudrier-Kleist Michel Grisolia Jacques Nolot André Téchiné |
| Starring | Manuel Blanc Philippe Noiret Emmanuelle Béart |
| Music by | Philippe Sarde |
| Cinematography | Thierry Arbogast |
| Editing by | Claudine Merlin, Edith Vassard |
| Release date(s) | 1991 |
| Language | French |
| IMDb profile | |
J'embrasse pas (English: I don't kiss) is a 1991 French drama film directed by André Téchiné, starring Manuel Blanc, Emmanuelle Béart and Philippe Noiret. The film is a grim, melancholic portrait of a young man searching and failing to find meaning in his life.
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[edit] Synopsis
Pierre, an idealistic twenty-year-old man, leaves his home in a remote district of the Pyrenees to travel to Paris, hoping to break away from his restrictive provincial life. Arriving in the French capital, he turns to the only person he knows in the city, Evelyne, a middle aged nurse, whom he had briefly met when working as a stretcher- bearer at Lourdes. She is vague and distracted, being preoccupied by the paralyzed mother with whom she lives. Nevertheless, she manages to get Pierre a job as a hospital orderly. He finds somewhere to stay and in order to fulfill his childhood dream, buys a book on how to become an actor.
A colleague at work, Said, takes him to dinner with two middle-aged men: they are both homosexuals. The cellist Dimitri is Said’s lover, and the intellectual television personality, Romain, is fascinated by Pierre but insist his interest is platonic. Pierre is disgusted by the evening and when Romain, gives him a ride home and stops in a park that is a pick up point for prostitutes, he walks off. Evelyne takes Pierre to an expensive restaurant to make up for her earlier indifference. They return to her house and spend the night together. She offers him free accommodation, he moves in and they start an affair.
Pierre begins to attend acting classes but shows little talent. When he has to prepare for Hamlet, he recites the role with no feelings and even forgets his lines. Humiliated, he flights from his tentative ambition to become an actor.
His relationship with Evelyne also comes to an abrupt end. She feels that he does not really love her and break away with him. When she leaves him some money, Pierre feels insulted, returns the money and leaves the place she had offered him. He goes absent from work pleading illness and eventually loses his job. Sleeping on the streets, somebody steals all his belongings. Now broke and homeless, Pierre goes back to the park where Romain took him, and sees him again. Pierre’s offer of sexual favors is refused, but Romain takes him on a trip to Spain. In Seville, the older man takes some one else as a lover and Pierre returns to Paris.
With no job or home, he has to take prostitution as his only way to make money. He makes his rules very clear to prospective male clients: " I don't kiss, I don't suck, I don't get fucked ". Despite his initial aversion to sex with men, Pierre manages to make a success of his new career. During a police crackdown on streetwalkers, he meets Ingrid, another prostitute. He becomes infatuated with Ingrid, whose dream had been to become a singer. Both are arrested and after a night in jail, they spend an idyllic day together. They make love, but their liaison is discovered by her pimp, who with his gang beats up and rapes Pierre, forcing Ingrid to watch. Pierre leaves Paris and join the paratroops; he voices to an interviewing officer a desire for revenge, and also for the " leap into the void" involved in parachuting at night. On a visit home, he tells his brother that he didn’t hate the city, he just wasn’t ready for it. On release from his service, and about to leave once again for Paris and open future, Pierre stops off at the beach, takes his clothes off and wanders into the sea.
[edit] Production
J'embrasse pas, Téchiné’s ninth feature was filmed after a four year gap since he made his previous film. J'embrasse pas was based on a story by Téchiné ’s collaborator Jacques Nolot, with dialogue by Téchiné, Nolot, and the writer Michel Grisolia.
[edit] Cast
- Manuel Blanc - Pierre
- Philippe Noiret - Romain
- Emmanuelle Béart - Ingrid
- Hélène Vincent - Evelyne
- Ivan Desny - Dimitri
- Christophe Bernard - Le Mac
- Roschdy Zem - Saïd
[edit] Analysis
J'embrasse pas is a bleak, melancholic portrait of a young man searching and failing to find meaning in his life. The film’s fragmented narrative structure and uneven rhythm added to the sense of insecurity experienced by the central character. At the same time, the moody photography – particularly the intense nocturnal scenes – lend an atmosphere of cruel oppression and dark poetry, recurring motifs in Téchiné’s appealing style of cinema.
[edit] DVD Release
J'embrasse pas is available in Region 2 DVD. Audio in French. There is no Region 1 DVD available.
[edit] References
- Marshall, Bill, André Téchiné, Mancheste University Press, 2007, ISBN 0719058317
