PEINDRE OU FAIRE L'AMOUR (PAINT OR MAKE LOVE)

France, 2005, 100 minutes, Colour.
Sabine Azema, Daniel Auteil, Amira Casar, Sergei Lopez.
Directed by Arnaud Larrieu and Jean- Marie Larrieu.

The archetypal French movie has classy actors, beautiful locations (especially mountains), affluent homes, discussions about art and the arts, meals, relationship issues and, not necessarily, a happy ending. To Paint or Make Love fulfils most of these conditions.

Sabine Azema, Daniel Auteuil and Sergi Lopez are excellent performers. The scenery is breathtaking. The characters seem to have unlimited funds to do and buy as they please. Everything seems wonderful.

When they opt for the second part of the film’s title, it seems just as casual and non-moral as anything else they do. Perhaps this is what is meant by Gallic insouciance. It is also romanticised insouciance as Daniel Auteuil wanders the mountains at the end and Nature Boy is sung as a kind of explanation of swinging behaviour: that all that matters is ‘to love and be loved in return’ – which is not exactly what is happening sexually.

1.The title, expectations? French themes?

2.The world of beauty, the mountain scenery locations, the houses, the town? Credible atmosphere?

3.The musical score, the songs of Jacques Brel? The recurring theme and use of ‘Nature Boy’? The lyrics? The moral?

4.The strong French cast and their screen presence?

5.A world of affluence, opportunity – a world of French soap opera?

6.Madeleine, her age, personality, painting? Her character, leisure? Her talk, the house, the sale? Her meeting with Adam, his being blind, the attraction?

7.William, retirement, friends? In the countryside, in love? The meeting with Elise, the house, its look, the possibility of buying it, the decision? The sexual overtones and behaviour associated with this?

8.The couple moving in, Madeleine and Adam? The visits, talks, the meals? Returning home through the forests? The fire? Sexual relationships, liaisons, the aftermath? With meaning or not?

9.The discussions, the rationalisations, manipulation or not?

10.Joao? The decision to go to Futuna? The mountains and the chalet, the anger, the revelation of the true self? Mutual dependence? The effect on William?

11.Elise and Joao, the wedding, their return? The sexual liaison?

12.The group going to to Futuna, selling up? Meeting the couple?

13.The issue of middle age, crises, marriage and commitment, encounters with new people, easy letting go, easy swapping partners? A lifestyle? Moral – amoral? The distinctive characteristics and the audience believing the characters behaving like this: Madeleine, her dignity in her art, William and his business sense, retired, Ava and her devotion, Adam and his blindness? The contrast with the younger couple, Elise and Joao?

14.What was the audience left with? A French portrait of French morals? And ‘Nature Boy’?