Mon Oncle D'Amerique
Released 1980
Stars Gerard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia, Roger Pierre, Philippe Laudenbach, Marie
Dubois, Pierre Arditi
Directed by Alain Resnais
Reviewed September 20, 2002
In 1980 Alain Resnais and screenwriter Jean Gruault once again charted new territory in the world of cinema with Mon Oncle D'Amerique, which weaves the intertwining stories of three characters with documentary footage of real-life biologist, Henri Laborit. It's a fascinating idea for a film, which is essentially a dramatically illustrated documentary. Yet, there isn't a lot of the documentary aspect to the film, and the dramatic stories aren't simple illustrations of Laborit's behavioral theories. The stories stand on their own. Resnais also weaves shots of three French actors from previous films to illustrate his actors' emotions in this film. Confused yet? I know I was in the beginning, but eventually it all gels into a successful film experiment that I haven't seen tried since.
The film opens with a bunch of quick-cuts mixed with lingering shots of inanimate objects, and this is immediately off-putting. Then it moves into the three stories, but they're intercut at such a dizzying pace (if you're reading the subtitles) that it's difficult to become involved in them at first. After a few minutes, I decided those stories must not be important, and I concentrated on Laborit's soothing tones. He opens with basic biology and begins describing the brain and central nervous system. The science is very basic initially, and I was reminded of my freshman college classes. When he discusses the basic motivations for animals, I recalled the time when my biology professor explained it to us. She said we animals are innately motivated by the four F's: feeding, fleeing, fighting, and sexual reproduction. I always thought there should be a fifth F--fun, and Laborit addresses this as the motivation for pleasure. I was fascinated as he delved deeper into the science and theories of behavioral motivation, and it's the aspect of the film that makes the whole package work.
Eventually, the dramatic stories take precedence over the narration, and they're allowed enough screen time to engage us. The characters include Jean Le Gall (Roger Pierre), who works in public radio and aspires to run for Prime Minister. Then there's Janine Garnier (Nicole Garcia), who's an aspiring actress, and she falls in love with Jean Le Gall. Finally, there's René Ragueneau (Gerard Depardieu), who leaves his family farm to work in a textile factory where he eventually ascends to a management position. The interesting thing in this film is the characters aren't important; it's their situations that are important. We don't spend enough time with them to really care about them, but their situations are used to illustrate Laborit's theories. Or are they? You could argue it's the other way around, that Laborit's theories are used to illustrate the stories. I think it's actually a combination of the two.
Laborit tells us we live in societies that shape our behavior as much as our basic motivations do, and some of his most fascinating commentary is about how society inhibits our natural reactions. He states these inhibitions cause us to attack our own bodies through maladies such as ulcers and lowered immune systems, which can result in cancers, etc. In the most extreme cases, we resort to suicide. Laborit uses a particular experiment with rats to illustrate his theories, and there are times when the human characters actually appear as rats and vice versa. Screenwriter Jean Gruault isn't foolish enough to reduce his characters to rats, however. He doesn't always force the human stories to mirror Laborit's experiment, but we always see the parallels.
I love both science and movies, and to receive a package like this one is a true delight. It's entertaining on a dramatic level, but it's fascinating on its scientific level. I would have liked to have heard even more from Laborit. His theories on society's purpose of providing a method for people to dominate other people was new to me, and it's rather scary how people's motivations can be reduced to such simple formulas. I think I'm going to have to read more from him, because it would give me a new perspective on life. Think about his words the next time your boss is giving you a performance rating, or a co-worker gets in your face, or a policeman pulls you over for speeding, etc. I almost have to smile now when I'm in such a situation, because it seems so surreal. How fun would it be to tell your boss, "I find your attempt to dominate me amusing." We have societal rules to inhibit such a response, and we generally follow those rules to avoid some form of punishment. That's too bad, because it sure would be fun to have that kind of freedom.
Reviewed by Bill Alward
September 20, 2002
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