NOT AS BAD AS ALL THAT (PAS SI MECHANT QUE CA)
Switzerland, 1974, 112 minutes, Colour.
Gerard Depardieu, Marlene Jobert, Philippe Leotard, Michel Robin, Dominique Labourier.
Directed by Claude Goretta.
Not As Bad As All That is a Swiss film by director Claude Goretta, at the time that he made the celebrated The Lacemaker with Isabel Huppert. This is a slight, enjoyable film with a romantic touch. A young Gerard Depardieu is a carpenter, popular with the men in the factory, who discovers that his father has not managed the company well. He decides to rob banks to get money to support the company. He has a tense but loving relationship with his wife. He meets a charming if somewhat eccentric worker in a post office that he tries to rob and is attracted to her, going out to meetings and sharing the robbery experiences with her. There is no time for a real resolution because he is discovered and arrested.
The film depends on the mood, the quality of the character acting, the lightness of touch and the insight into human nature.
1. Entertaining Swiss comedy drama? The blend of the serious and the comic? A reflection of life in Switzerland, economic difficulties of the '70s? Human relationships?
2. The Swiss settings, the town, the countryside, the banks? Musical score?
3. The title, its meaning - to Pierre's life?
4. Gerard Depardieu as Pierre: his bulk and screen presence, his relationship with his wife, love, the family scenes? The range of outings they go on? His father's illness? At work, the carpentry, popular with the men? The dilemma, the accounts in disorder? The decision to rob the bank - the mask, going to the post office, the girl fainting and his reviving her? Attracted to her, ringing her up, the meetings, his talking with her, the romance, yet his love for his wife? The gentle double life? Her robbing the bank for his sake? Hiding the money in the tree, the visits to the tree, being discovered? The play for the children, his performance - and his arrest? His future?
5. The portrait of the family, the wife and her concentrating on her beauty and exercise, her love for her husband, the children?
6. The bank teller, her fainting, revived, the phone calls? Her relationship with her boyfriend and his visits? Attraction towards Pierre, going out with him, going to the apartment? The strength of the relationship? Her nervousness, the outings at the tree? Her decision to rob the bank in order to give Pierre the money? Her presence at the concert - what future when Pierre goes to jail?
7. The background of the company, the gentle carpenter and his friendship with Pierre? The other men and the jokes? The financial difficulties, the destruction of the furniture? The portrait of Pierre's father and his illness, ineffectual?
8. A gentle comedy, relationships, fidelity and infidelity, family love, financial difficulties, the law?
