Review of My American Uncle (1980) by Wut S — 26 Aug 2007

If I have to pick top three films, Mon Oncle d'Amerique would undoubtedly claim the privilege. The film is multifariously rewarding, notably in its formalism, deconstruction, and aesthetic philosophy.

The film begins with a depiction of a blinking heartbeat dubbed with an existential, scientific narration: "A being's only reason for being is being. In other words, to maintain its structure it must stay alive... or there is no being." As the heart fades out, we hear numerous voices and see a circular digital mask encircling around a wall plastered with photographs. Stills of fungus and plants are then shown with an academic voice explaining their living organism. Suddenly, another voice interrupts and we see a photo montage consisting of childhood objects and nostalgic scenes. Then two other voices interrupt in the same manner, tallying to a total of three biographies. The narrations are clearly auto-biographical of the respective enunciators. Then the old academic voice returns, this time narrating over shots of different animal species, again explaining biologically. Switching between educational documentary and fictional biographies, this film initially seems obscured in its purpose. As the characters' stories advance from childhood to adolescence, the genre-switching appears less. Though the biographies become dominant in length, the film's educational aspect increasingly specializes--the narrator now detailing the functionality of living organisms' neurological system. Eventually the academic narrator is revealed, a real life biologist in a library/office seemingly addressing us like his students or interviewers at the slightest. At this point, the biographical and educational approaches merge and self-acknowledge as a hermeneutic of social behaviors. However, the stories continue, this time no longer as a photo montage, but animated into a conventional film-like narratives (though there are still plenty of non-diegetic inserts and academic interruptions). The stories are emotionally captivating--we sympathize the intertwining lives of these characters. The occasional superimposed and cuts back to the biologist and his metaphorical "rat experimentations" serve as emotional deconstruction for the characters are themselves shown as subjects to social experiments. Nevertheless, the film does not intend to deconstruct human emotions and actions as simply neurological behaviors. Despite the educational overtone, Mon Oncle d'Amerique still contains sentimentalism we feel upon sympathizing characters--this is probably best explained by the ending quotation by the biologist: "To go to the moon, we must know the law of gravity... Understanding the law of gravity doesn't make us free of gravity.".

A fucking masterpiece.