Les choses de la vie

Plot synopsis:
In the French countryside on a summer morning, a lorry full of pigs stalls at a crossroads. An Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint swerves to avoid it and crashes into an orchard, hurling the driver onto the grass. As he loses consciousness, he revisits the essential things which made up his life.
A Paris architect in his forties driving to a meeting at Rennes, he had quarrelled with his lover Hélène the night before. They were due to leave together for a job he was offered in Tunis but he had not signed the documents. And he had agreed to take his teenage son Bertrand, who lived with his estranged wife Catherine, for a fortnight to the family's holiday home on the Île de Ré. Stopping at a café, he wrote a letter to Hélène calling everything off, but did not post it. Driving past a wedding, he realised that the letter was quite wrong and he should in fact marry Hélène, so giving a purpose to the rest of their lives.
Rushed to hospital in Le Mans, he does not recover and Catherine as his widow is given his effects, including the unsent letter which she tears to pieces. Hélène arrives at the hospital and is told by a nurse that she is too late.

Tags: flashback

Review:
The first link of the bourgeoisie saga..
With "les choses de la vie" ,Claude Sautet relinquished his former style ,film noir ("classes tous risques" "l'arme à gauche" both worth seeking)in favor of bourgeois psychological dramas ."Les choses de la vie" was the first link on the chain,and -with the exception of "Max et les ferrailleurs" (1971),which showed Sautet at the height of his powers,when he came back for a short while to his first inspiration-remains the best of this "cinema de qualité".Unlike the other works ("Mado" "Cesar et Rosalie" "Vincent,François,Paul et les autres" "une histoire simple" ,etc etc etc) ,"les choses de la vie" has an emotional power and an unusual inventive direction.Editing is stunning (the first picture is one wheel of the car ),and never a car accident was filmed with such mastery.Flashbacks are used with great skill too.The nightmare scene (the wedding) remains very impressive today.And the metaphorical way Sautet uses to depict the hero's death commands respect and admiration.The last part of the movie is almost completely silent,but the strength of the pictures and the actors' talent (Piccoli,Schneider,but Lea Massari and Jean Bouise too)work wonders.Superb score.louis Delluc prize.Remake :"intersection" featuring Richard Gere.As I cannot say something nice....
Claude Sautet always Claude Sautet....
By watching this 1969 movie, I have just confirmed my opinion about Claude Sautet: that's one Director that takes the expectator "inside the scene" (As seen in his latest work: Nelly and Mr.Arnaud).
He has this ability that allows him to "extract" the most of his characters in the psychologic aspect, by showing all the range of their feelings...Take the scene where Pierre Berard (portrayed by Michel Piccoli) tells Héléne (played by Romy Schneider) of his sudden decision of no longer accompany her on a trip planned ages ago.
Another scene that worths appears in a record as a "Death Scenes Hall of Fame" is the one in which Pierre lays on the grass, his thoughs exposed as the expectator follows him, in all his emotional suffering.
Claude Sautet: a Director that deserves having his name written in the "Hall of Fame of the Greatest Directors of All Times".
As an "homage" to him, in a scale of 10, I grade this film 9..
About lives.
It is an experience.
Rush, subtle, delicate and strange.
A form of catharsis and source of restless questions.It is a beautiful film but not as aesthetic show or as object of loisir.
In fact, it is a definition of life, social relations, ambiguity of love and search of happiness beyond classical definitions or Freudian symbols.In each life important it is pieces of puzzle.
The respect for game rules, the science to be the favorite image of the other, the words as sentimental trap, the desire as essence of duty.For everybody the role of axis in family, society, hate or respect, expectations and illusions is more relevant than interior life.
So, the masks are only way to be answer to expectations of other.It is a splendid film for the acting of Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli.For the Sautet mark.For dialogs and lights, for powerful suggestion art, for its message and definition of second life, for atmosphere and delicate art of existence sense discovery.
About last hours and projection of lost world.
About final silence and about shadows of the others.
About structure of hope..
Fork in the road.
A typical 70's drama, something that still gets its way when it comes to touch that emotional key in us (Or some of us) and makes us long for that passionate love story, without a tragic end of course.
Through a filter of pastel tones, Sautet portrays the typical struggle many have put themselves through to fork onto a secondary sentimental route in life, thinking they can have it both ways.
Albeit its apparent sappy tone, Les Choses de la Vie is an intense mature story of love and sacrifice, a double one at the end.
I find European dramas very attractive, perhaps because they portray a kind of no-frills passion that is very hard to come across nowadays, both in movies and in reality.
A movie like this surely has its clichés, the dual life, the regrets, the tragic death but in this movie Sautet is a wizard in enfolding the viewer with a very bitter-sweet sequence of happy yet solemn flashbacks.
Pedro Lazaga's Largo Retorno (1975) happens to be similar in the way the relationship between the two main characters comes to an end (The memories, the sorrow, the death), granted in Les Choses de la Vie there is a three-way story.
Both Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider fit perfectly in the above scheme of things.Just like in Largo Retorno, a very somber yet passionate baroque score complements the entire movie, leaving us with a soggy handkerchief at the end..
A movie you can see again and again..
Yesterday (Dec 15, 2001 I saw "Intersection" (with Richard Gere and Sharon Stone), so, I immediately wanted to see the original and ...
there is no place like home.
I went to a Blockbuster and, once again, the original is much better.
Try to see it and you wont regret.
French director Claude Sautet films some small things of life..
French films are famous for their depiction of minor incidents which converge at a larger point to make up the most of what happens in the lives of people.
This helps viewers to have a better idea of protagonists' lives.
French director Claude Sautet chose to base his film on this premise as he films the personal as well as professional lives of a successful yet unhappy man.
From a career point of view, actor Michel Piccoli is shown as somebody doing well in life as he is appreciated by everybody around him.
However, his personal life is in turmoil as he is unable to decide between his wife and his mistress.
As he is about to solve this dilemma, a tragedy unfolds in his life.
This is hardly the description of an original story but what makes the film interesting is how it has been shot.
Apart from describing in detail minor incidents related to the lives of protagonists, Claude Sautet has used all his imagination to film the accident scene which occupies a large part of this film's screen space.
Finally, once the film is over, some viewers might be tempted to call it the most important moment of the film..
about life.
in its small aspects.
as the traits of an accident.
as choices and happy days and love and expectations and miracles and secrets and summer days and bicycle ways and smiles and words and choices.
a film like others by Claude Sautet.
a film like many others from French cinema.
the difference - the special chemistry between Romy Schneider and Michel Piccoli.
this is the detail who does difference.
and impose a special flavor to a simple and ordinary story..
My rating: 7.
Well, the things of life are not always like this, neither are exactly like this.
Maybe for its time this movie was something like documentary and representative for the decade but now it seem to me more like utopia and idealistic.
I hurry to tell you why.Most important, seen from south-eastern point of view the look over the man is strained a lot.
He with capital "h" who is not clear with himself is being waited by his wife and son and his newly beloved.
Almost deified.
And he, in this time he is self-willed and frivolous...From there on you know what this movie is about.
The positive which I want to note is the approach including dreams while he is in coma.
The viewer is being rose to the role of a shaman who is asked to interpret them.
So, I leave to you the interpretation while I continue with my next critic of ideas in a movie.http://vihrenmitevmovies.blogspot.com/.
Flash, replay, flashback.
This is one of the few movies in which I thought I detected a stroke of genius.
At the core of it is an automobile accident, filmed from many angles, in close up, from a distance, in slow motion, with natural sound, with music.
Then the whole story up to the crash is sort of rewound and played again, interspersed with flashbacks in the flashbacks.
As I write this, it all sounds very technical, abstract and arty, but in fact it is deeply poetic.
I am someone who is quick to say French movies are generally overpraised, but here everything works so well, is so painstakingly beautiful.
Nobody should regard it as spoiler when I tell here that the main character dies in the end  but what a way to go!
I can specially recommend this movie to people who like to get off their tobacco habit.
All characters smoke continuously, you will get a sore throat without lighting a single cigarette yourself..
A cosmic thread that holds back the Dead.
Above all the memories, there is one with a definite form...
mostly in the Love we take to our graves.
This love becomes the wellspring of our final images- our reconciliation with longings and regrets.
Les Choses De la Vie is centered around a tragedy, an automobile accident.Shot in dazzling slow motion and multiple camera angles, the accident is the Spine on which the Book of Michel (Michel Piccoli) rests.
A lot has been mentioned about the simplicity of the story but it is the construction and arrangement of plot elements that leaves a lump in one's throat.A cast that boasts a combined filmography of everyone from Fellini, Tavernier, Antonioni and Demy to Chahine, is the Coup that director Sautet landed.
The Film opens with shots of a car in flames, the victim, witnesses and bystanders.
The accident is reconstructed in parallel with Michel's life.
He is a man of means, a successful architect on the verge of moving to another country.
His young mistress Helene(Romy Schneider)wants a house on an island unused by others unlike the one owned by his wife Catherine.
Catherine (Lea Massari)is also a colleague who has her own lover.
The first hint of searing emotion involves the mention of a favorite family dog, the last the family had.
Michel's son Bertrand immerses himself in inventing motorized circuitry that can replace pets in people's homes.
What's left between father and son except gratuitous enquiries?
This thread is picked up to show a conflict between Michel and Helene at a restaurant.
Will Michel chose a vacation with his son over Helene's pressing need to leave the country?
Life's like a corvee to work and only a 'young wine that rarely travels' can make up for 32 years of friendship changing for a woman.
Michel's love is questioned even as he acknowledges Helene's Physical hold on him.
An especially evocative scene involves the engine and the road..
the only true sounds in a difficult silence as they drive back from a party.
The lines are pithy and loaded with identity.
Sample this....
"You love me 'cause I'm here.
You'll be lost if you cross the street." Michel drops Helene off and journeys on, perhaps on an adventure.
He has nothing to say because he's still clutching on to civility.
The rain brings it all on, the music soars.
Michel is lost in his reminiscences.
A flood of sweet memories borne from pain, released to counter a new heartache.
He tries to undo the showdown with Helene...
in solitude, in bitter pain.
He tries to explain it in a letter but leaves it unmailed.Self reproach drives him to make a futile call.
The rest of the film moves on the light,airy wings of Philippe Sarde's music score.
The background assumes various shades as we ride along, passing by a joyous nuptial celebration and culminating in the horrific minutae of the wreck; pulverized steel and a man's life overturned in 5 seconds.
The final few frames are like a surreal homage to Michel's being.
His subconscious rises as the car burns...
a faint murmur to leave behind Life's damages.
The victim is like a caged animal, open to interpretations from onlookers.
He must resolve to stay awake even as an innocuous Priest chants the last rites.
His mind is awake but people can't tell.
Regret alarms his soul and brings him back to consciousness, if only for a while.
It's not the pain, no mortality can stop a longing soul.
But this where the Inner Voice capitulates to the legerdemain of shifting shapes in a dream.
The voice rises but once.
"...not to live alone," it says.
"The Musician has fallen asleep" and the deep gush of the Ocean takes over.
'The Song of Helene' has an ethereal quality...
almost like a fragile Cosmic Thread that holds Michel back on Earth..
So tragic, so brilliant, so French.
This film opens with the car crash of the main character.
He is not dead.
The rest of the movie then slowly unravels; we hear his thoughts on love, his wife, society and his life in general.As it slowly progresses, with a series of flashbacks we see how the last few days of the main protagonist's life have changed his whole existence.
Piccoli perfectly captures the sadness and prevents needless sentimentality as he inexorably and gradually descends towards death.
He is going through problems with his wife, played by the wonderful Romy Schneider, we see how he feels compromised in his modern lifestyle, and how he feels for his relationship with his son.
Sautet places each scene with great skill to create an atmosphere of unavoidable tragedy, of longing and regret.
Sautet stays away from cliché and prefers to show each scene in slow-motion without great effects, just to frame the emotion of the moment.
The acting is spot on, never overplayed, also understated, and always poignant and effective.
This film is Gallic passion at its most powerful.What is the most important thing in life?
What choices are the right ones?
Is everything just pointless?
What really matters?
Sautet made me think long after this film as to what we think about when our life flashes before us.
And believe me, you'll be feeling a little emotional yourself when the credits roll up..
Like Raindrops On Roses ....
a few of My favourite things are the films of Claude Sautet such as Cesar et Rosalie, Vincent, Francois, Paul et les autres, Nelly et M.
Arnaud and The Things Of Life, the film that marked both a change of direction and a maturity in Sautet's career.
The premise is hardly original; a man is involved in a car crash and as he nears death his life flashes before him.
In other hands this could be maudlin, gauche, embarrassing or all three but writers like Jean-Loup Dabadie (who worked with Sautet on two of the exceptional films he made with Yves Montand, Cesar et Rosalie and Vincent, Francois, Paul et les autres) and directors like Sautet don't do maudlin, gauche, etc and as if the technical credits weren't enough we have actors like Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider to put the icing on the cake.
This is one that stands up to repeated viewings..
« F...ing truck » (tv).
My title is borrowed from an album composed by the famous french singer Renaud who dedicated it in memory of his late friend, the famous french humorist and actor, Coluche who faced the same fate than the one depicted in the movie.
In a way, the title of the movie says it all with wisdom: « the facts of life ».
So, it's true: accidents happen , it's sad, it's meaningless, it's always too soon but we better accept this threat and live with it back in the mind.
For example, i knew a young coworker who died suddenly in the office from a heart attack and in a way, it motivates me to leave my studio clean and to shower neatly every day as i wouldn't like to leave the feeling i lived as a pig if i had to go prematurely.
In addition, the movie is a positive illustration of my « FFM » rule, exposed in my last review.
Here, those « first five minutes » are clearly interesting and give the urge to see what happens.
Sure, like « Carlito's way », you know at first how the movie will (almost) end but this premonition adds however a lot to the drama.
It's all the more gripping that time is really distorted in the movie : it's slow, fast-forwarded, back to the past or to the future.
At last, released in 1970, you can notice that french society was stricter then (for example, the law to free divorce was voted 5 years later !) and the charm of this old movie is that the cast is taken for granted : in other words, I just watch them for what they do on screen.
Then, acting artists weren't polluted by promotions, selling images, pseudo social commitment or private life news.
It's all the more essential that Romy is full of sensibility and Piccoli has a great stature too.