Novelist and director Ilan Duran Cohen weighs in with a complex, emotionally intense story of lawyers in love. Alain (Pascal Greggory) is an indecisive bisexual lawyer in his forties, torn between a plethora of male lovers, including the ardent, mercurial Christophe and his fiancee and legal colleague Laurence (Nathalie Richard). Alain’s life is further complicated by a thorny relationship with Marc (Vincent Martinez), whom he’s defending in court, and who persuades Alain to be his emissary to girlfriend Babette. This is not so much a film about sexuality as about indecision, claims the director and writer. But the dizzying sexual complications are portrayed in a direct fashion that makes this rather more challenging than the average soap-style psychodrama. An eminent cast makes meaty work of the emotional complexities, among them, up-and-comer Julie Gayet (Select Hotel), ex-chanson crooner Alain Bashung, and Nathalie Richard, who trades in her usual marginal hipster parts for lawyer’s robes. The always watchable Bulle Ogier is also present with one of the crisply maternal roles that are currently becoming her speciality.
France, 2000. English subtitles. Colour. Dolby stereo SR. 84 min.