Ever since his first short film La vie des morts catapulted him to international attention, Arnaud Desplechin has been able to pursue his own artistic and creative ambitions. In 1992, his first feature, La sentinelle, gave him a presence at Cannes, and today he returns to the Riviera with Comment je me suis disputé…, subtitled Ma vie sexuelle or My Sex Life.
Desplechin has always elected to set his films in the present day, and to focus his camera on contemporary problems, and such is the case with Comment je me suis disputé… The film is generally considered to be a semi-autobiographical piece.
It would be a mistake though, given the subtitle, to think that the film was just a simple story of a young man's sexploits. Comment je me suis disputé… is more concerned with a thirty-something Parisian trying to find his way in life, his position in society.
Its hero, Paul, played by Mathieu Amalric, is 29 years old and a teacher at a school in the suburbs just outside Paris. Paul's big problem is that he is unable to commit himself to anything, or make the decision to get on with his life. Thus he has been teaching for the last two years in what he always considered to be "a temporary job", and can't even be bothered to take the exams required to become a full-time professor. To be more exact, he does not even like the job at all.
His personal life is in similar disarray. Emmanuelle Devos plays Esther with whom Paul has had a relationship dating back over a decade. Unfortunately, they can't stand each other, and have been trying to break up. Neither of them are capable of making any sort of move or decision about their future, so the relationship just limps on. Paul would like to have a relationship with another girl he met two years ago, but discovers that she has got engaged to his best friend, Nathan. As Paul doesn't believe in "taking" another man's woman, there are problems that have to be resolved, but decision-making is not his forté.
Comment je me suis disputé reprises the same mood and thematic resonances found in La sentinelle, an unusual thriller about a boy on a train who finds a shrunken head in his suitcase. Both films take place in a society where young people are trying to survive in a cruel and chaotic world where lies and manipulation are the name of the game. They are both, in essence, about the meaning of life as was the short La vie des morts.
Desplechin creates his own reality for every film working, more often than not, with the same cast of actors. Marianne Denicourt, Emmanuel Salinger and Emmanuelle Devos are all Desplechin favourites, and have been gathered together again on Comment je me suis disputé. Chiara Mastroianni, Fabrice Desplechin and Bruno Podalydès round out the cast.
The film has been produced by the aptly-titled Why Not Productions. Producer Pascal Caucheteux has been with Desplechin since the beginning, producing both La vie des morts and La sentinelle. He has also worked on Philippe Garrel's La naissance de l'amour, and with the young and up-and-coming directors, Xavier Beauvois (N'oublie pas que tu vas mourir) and Solange Martin (A cran).
The Ffr26 million (US$5m) Comment je me suis disputé received an advance on receipts, and France 2 and La Sept Cinéma invested in the project. Shot over 1994/95, international sales are being handled by Flach Pyramide. The film's theatrical release in France has been held up to see whether it garners any plaudits at the festival.
Valérie Ganne
Prod Co: Why Not Productions
Prod: Pascal Caucheteux
Dir: Arnaud Desplechin
Scr: Arnaud Desplechin, Emmanuel Bourdieu
Ph: Eric Gautier
Art Dir: Antoine Platteau
Prod Des: Ouri Milshtein
Cos: Claire Gérard-Hirne
Mus: Khrishna Levy
Ed: François Gédigier
Cast: Marianne Denicourt, Emmanuelle Devos, Emmanuel Salinger, Mathieu Amalric, Denis Podalydès
Running time: 178mins
Int Sales: Flach Pyramide International
