L’Ennui is a French film about a very unusual relationship. It contains long passages of talk about relationships, long passages of jealous behavior, and long passages of explicit sex. Certainly, it sounds like a very entertaining piece of racy French cinema. But this film is hampered, possibly, by the fact that it also contains one of the most irritating characters I’ve ever witnessed on a movie screen.

The lead character is a philosophy professor, Martin, in a state of mental crisis. He wants to write a book, but can’t seem to get anywhere. He is inattentive during his own classes. And he is a general misanthrope, in that he can’t even go to a gathering of people and have even a slight bit of a good time.

One night he drives around the city, and notices a couple walking down the street. Suddenly the woman spurns him, and runs off, while the man enters the nearest bar, apparently to drown his sorrows. For some odd reason, Martin follows him into the bar. The other man soon gets into a fight with the bouncer because he tries to leave without paying for his drinks. Martin says that he will pay for the drinks, and the man thanks him by giving him something wrapped in a paper bag, saying that it was very valuable to him. He also gives Martin his address, so he can return the item whenever the man is able to pay him back.

A few days later, Martin goes to the address, and finds out that, one, the man was an artist, and, two, the man died the day previous. A neighbor says that the artist died during the act of lovemaking. Martin goes into the apartment, opens the package, and sees that it’s a painting of a nude. The walls of the artist’s apartment are also covered with nudes.

Just at that moment, a woman, Cecilia, walks from downstairs. This woman was the model, and apparently, lover of the artist, who was there on the night he died. Naturally, the artist was in his sixties, while Cecilia is only 17, yet for some odd reason, they had an affair. Martin, in order to satisfy his curiosity, asks her about her life with this man, about why they’d actually have an affair, and so on. The scene ends with a rather knowing look between these two........

The movie’s contrived nature grows even more strongly when, suddenly, these two people get together for long bouts of sex, interspersed with even longer bouts of Martin interrogating Cecilia on virtually everything about her behavior with the artist, and, later on, her feelings about himself, and a man that Martin sees her with on the street one day. And there’s the rub: Martin is, without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest turd (or, since this is French, merde) in the history of the cinema. I’ve seen many annoying characters, but this guy takes the cake.

The reason Martin is so annoying is because he is also the most possessive person I’ve seen in some while as well. He just talks, talks, talks, talks, to Cecilia, a girl of seventeen, who doesn’t quite grasp the meaning of concrete relationships, who isn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the box, and expects her to understand him and his issues. It would be nice, if these two characters had conversations of meaning. Instead, all it is, is Martin going on and on and on and on and on about why you did this and why you did that, and why I know you lied to me, and so on and so forth. Later on, he follows her, and sees what he has expected to see all along -- the woman associating with another man. For the rest of the picture, he psychologically berates her for this fact, doing her best to make her stay with him instead of this ridiculous actor with the yellow hair. For almost the entire picture, I wanted somebody to just hit this guy in the head, and since Cecilia didn’t seem to want to do this, I was wanting to do it myself.

I’m not going to say that this movie is poor, because it’s not entirely a waste, actually. In a sense, this movie does an all too good job of portraying a man utterly obsessed and possessed. In fact, it’s hard to say that this guy isn’t truthful... because he is, for sure. He’s the extreme of what some of us feel when we are in relationships, especially some of us who are particularly insecure. He constantly obsesses over most everything she says to him. He analyses everything she says, and even says that he remembers every conversation they had. He needs to keep a record so he can pin anything on her later on. He doesn’t just assault her mentally, but he even treats her roughly a number of times, in bursts of anger. Martin goes utterly insane with jealousy and possessiveness, and doesn’t seem to want to turn back. I don’t think for one moment, is he able to think of her as anything other than a mysterious force that compels him to her while at the same time creating feelings of anger, and hate, both towards her and himself. In other words, he doesn’t think of her as a person!

Well, Cecilia isn’t exactly an amazing person either. In fact, she’s written as shallow and rather bland. I think that it’s closer to a stereotype of the teenage temptress, a naive woman who blindly toys with men’s minds, who attracts people with their sexuality, people who don’t realize that, besides her sexuality, she is a boring, inert cypher. This is rubbish, of course... even the type of girl that Cecilia is, an unsophisticated teenager with little intellectual interests and the like, would be more lively than this. But Martin, and the writer of this movie, only see her as whatever the stereotype demands. I’m sure that there are 17-year-old girls who are somewhat like her, but I think they’d be more interesting as personalities than this girl is.

There are some good bits, truthfully, dealing with the fact that these two are very incompatible as personalities. There’s one scene near the beginning of this relationship when he postpones the lovemaking by telling her to do a bunch of things first, like turn off the gas in the kitchen, close the door, etc., etc. He’s just doing this to torture her; he’s so dismissive of her because of her youth, her intellect, her lack of sophistication -- he’d never treat a “high-class” woman with such subtle cruelty.

I must say that this woman’s body is made for love. Cecilia is a voluptuous, full-figured gal, and has the kind of body that belongs in sensual paintings, and in long acts of explicit sex, as we see here. She’s not a skinny woman like some Hollywood actresses are, but a full, even chubby woman, but in all the right places. It seems as if the camera knows this, as we see some lovely shots of her frame. Now, I’m not saying this as a detached observer... but as a shallow male who sometimes enjoys the sight of a feminine body! But, really, what’s wrong with that?

The sex scenes are very graphic, and are certainly blunt enough for my tastes, and are certainly not out of place in this film, since sexual obsession is part of the story. (And, like I said, Cecilia has a body made for love!) Of course, I wish that the movie were a little more romantic, or at least a little more complex, rather than just a bunch of annoying arguments. Then at least the sexuality would be a little more fun.

The biggest problem is that the movie is so contrived. The way in which these two are brought together is novel, but obviously a version of what Roger Ebert would call a Meet Cute. And there is absolutely no rhyme or reason why Martin and Cecelia should get together for a sexual relationship. We literally go from the scene in which they first meet, to a scene with Martin and the dean at the school, and the next scene where Martin and Cecilia rendezvous, and we start hearing the creaking of springs in the mattress. Huh??? At least give us a bit more smoother progression.

L’Ennui is not a terrible movie. In fact, I’m tempted to give it a recommendation, for it at least is challenging in some ways. Although I find Martin extremely annoying, there is truth in his character, and in the jealousy he feels. Cecelia is a beautiful woman, although her character is too stereotypical for my liking. The storyline is quite contrived most of the time, but has good ideas. Overall, it’s a three star movie, no more, no less. If you want to see a different kind of sexy entertainment, and aren’t easily bored, L’Ennui might work for you. But others may want to pass.




Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV