A French Cinematographic Sum of Ones
Please don’t expect this to be an expert’s cinematographic analysis; I simply want to share a few thoughts on an uncommon love story. And maybe, “vous mettre l’eau à la bouche”…
As we find ourselves in the current stay-home situation (I will purposely avoid anger-triggering words), we seem to be sinking deeper and deeper into the couch, leaving unerasable tracks of our bottoms, which, by the way, are getting heavier with every square of chocolate swallowed in front of Netflix.
And of course, for my little French family, this is the perfect opportunity to revise our classics and catch up with some pearls that had the audacity to escape our devouring eyes.
One plus one won’t make two.
So, here we are, screening the French romantic comedy Un + Une, with the star of controversy, Jean Dujardin, and the luminous Elsa Zylberstein. For our non-Latin-language speaking friends, the title translates to One + One, the first one being masculine and the second one being feminine. And, as easy as this sum appears to be, one plus one just won’t make two.
Our charming protagonists are juxtaposed on a deeply humane journey to the Ganges river, flowing through the holy city of Varanasi, and to Amma, the hugging saint in Amritapuri. Despite the shared spiritual experience and an undeniable mutual attraction, over breath-taking Indian landscapes, Antoine and Anna just won’t add up.
Sure, one could argue that both of them already have someone they truly love. Not to mention that Anna’s husband, the French ambassador to India (played by the great Christopher Lambert), offered to host Antoine, who initially travelled to India for his work as a film composer.
But let’s face it. Jean Dujardin rarely plays a faithful character. We mostly know him as the contemptible serial seducer. Clearly, the seduction game is on, as soon as he steps out of the plane. (Even though I may have been tempted to believe in an innocently glamourous friendship — how naïve I could be!) And even the pure and candid Anna can’t resist his charms (how naïve she could be!).
Seduction is on the black board… But can a love equation hold true?
Opposites light fires and build bridges.
From the very start, their honesty and openness is profoundly touching. While Anna can’t be stopped in her passionate talks about spiritualism and the universe, Antoine listens, comments and teases her in his very rational and cynical manner.
But admirable honesty and openness also deliver less admirable words and feelings. Anna shamefully admits an attraction she can barely contain. Antoine shamelessly admits his unprincipled and disloyal attitude towards love.
Can you feel the heat and smell the burnt wood? Their words have litten a fire.
In my cloud of thoughts, I couldn’t chase away the why-question. “Les opposés s’attirent.” — Opposites attract is a beautiful saying but seems too easy in this sum of ones. My guess would be, that in their desperate attempt to resist each other, the protagonists were building bridges instead of barriers. Despite all the differences in their fundamental beliefs and values, they always let each other speak, listened, and admired in each other what they weren’t able to reproduce or simply share.
However much you now want to glue Antoine and Anna together, the bridges allow them to meet, exchange and attract each other, but perhaps it is the discrepancy between their core beliefs that prevents them from crossing that bridge (Londoners, think of windy Waterloo bridge!), hence rendering love impossible.
An unorded mistake
Then, what would you say this love story really was? A terrible mistake?
One small detail that stroke me was the order of the ones in the title, masculine before feminine.
You see, Antoine works in collaboration with a movie director who filmed a famous love story with a happy ending (What a beautiful mise en abîme and antithesis!), which he called Juliet and Romeo. To him, the order matters. The woman comes first, and perhaps it is this little detail, that enables a happy ending, unlike Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Whereas the director insists on the order, which Antoine carelessly forgets, the latter displays a terribly selfish behaviour towards love and women. This leads us to Un + Une instead of Une + Un. A lonely ending instead of a happy ending.
Mistake or not, I do believe Andy Warhol’s words are very well suited for our sum of ones:
The most exciting attractions are between two opposites that never meet.
