At
the age of ninety-three Manoel de Oliveira continues prodigiously
to write and direct films, but his I'm Going Home
appears to speak with a different voice. When the film begins,
aging Gilbert Valence (played by Michel Piccoli) is offering
yet another acclaimed performance on stage, the role of the
king in Ionesco's Exit the King. After the play ends, he is
informed that his wife, daughter, and son-in-law have died
in an automobile accident. How does an older man try to make
a life as a widower whose only living relative is six-year-old
grandson-in-law Serge (played by Jean Koeltgen), who has a
nanny Guilhermine (played by Mauricette Gourdon) to take care
of him? Quite simply, he never recovers from the shock. Nobody
with whom he talks can ease the pain of the loss. For a while,
he frequents his favorite café, wanders the streets
of Paris (pausing a few times to sign autographs for fans),
and shops for new clothes, but soon he is mugged. His agent
tries to interest him in new parts, and he indeed plays Prospero
in Shakespeare's The Tempest. But his agent soon angers him,
first by prying into his solitary personal life and then by
offering him a sordid part in a sleazy play in which an older
man is fleeced by a younger woman. Then he decides to live
with his grandson, who is eager to show affection to his remaining
relative, and they amuse each other playing games. One morning
his agent calls him urgently, saying that there is an excellent
opportunity. John Crawford (played by John Malkovitch), an
American director, desperately needs a replacement for a small
but important part, Buck Milligan, in an about-to-be-filmed
movie based on James Joyce's Ulysses because the
actor cast for the role has suddenly fallen seriously ill.
Accordingly, Valence quickly attempts to learn his English
lines for the part and appears for the filming within three
days. Valence, however, has some difficulty with the lines,
and Crawford will not allow a reasonably equivalent set of
words, so there are several retakes of a scene until, all
of a sudden, Valence says, "I'm going home." He
then takes off his cloak, walks out of the studio, and joins
his grandson to enjoy his golden years in a hassle-free environment
with much reciprocated affection and good humor. The film
says that good acting is pure enjoyment for an actor; but
when the feeling goes, the simple pleasures of family life
hopefully await. The relevance of the paradigm for many other
situations is clear, and one parallel that seems obvious is
with how Professor Immanuel Rath in The Blue Angel
(1930) walked offstage one night with a shriek. However, the
pace of the film is extraordinarily slow; much time consists
of just observing the magnificent acting abilities of Michel
Piccoli in two classic plays. MH
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