Review of My American Uncle (1980) by Michael L — 12 Mar 2009

Its alot like a Greek Tragedy, except the chorus is supplimented by evolutionary psychologist and pharmocoligist Henri Labroit explaining the actions of the characters in terms of his ideas concernig human and mamal behavior; consumption behavior, escape behavior, combat behavior, and inhibition behavior.

We trace the lives of three characters from birth through childhood, and into the drama of their adult lives. Their adult lives are full of struggels with career, family, relationships, intersecting at times, but only as dramatic as real life allows. Its the way Alain Resnais constructs the stories that makes them fascinating. We observe them largely as a scientist might, in terms of parents, enviornment, traits, and habits. At one point Labroit discusses shock experiments done on mice, in later scenes we flash back to the characters who have giant mouse heads, the effect is startling and funny, at once.

The most complex human emotions are rendered as functions of the animal brain, human relationships are as simple as mice being given aversion therapy, or as complex, depending on how you look at it. Labroit and Resnais seems at odds at times, about the miraculousness and simplicilty of it all, but it helps to make the movie more dynamic.

Its educational and informational as a science documentary, but the drama is so well entergrated the intellectual stimulation is offset, by a real sense of attatchment and catharsis for and with the characters. The problems of their lives are those everyone experiences, Gerard Depardieu is a devout catholic, raised on a farm, who works at a factory and is struggling with bieng downsized. Nicole Garcia is raised by communist parents, and becomes an actress and later a stylist, having an affair with the married...Roger Pierre, the head of the French Ministry of Radio, raised by an affluent family, who longs to write a book about the history of the sun.

Ive only seen two Resnais films, "Hiroshima Mon Amour" and "Last Year At Marienbad"(which I fell asleep while watching twice), and this is somewhere between the emotional fallout of the first and the experimental daring of the later, but its my favorite of the three.

An enthralling, fascinating, and profound film, that's as emotionally disarming as it is intellectually engaging. Visually it's stunning as well. The final image of the Forest mural on the building speaks volumes. I need more Resnais in my life.