L'Amant de cinq jours (1961)
Directed by Philippe de Broca

Film Review

Before he struck box office gold with his flamboyant comedies, most starring an exuberant Jean-Paul Belmondo, Philippe de Broca cut his directing teeth on an altogether more sedate genre, light romantic comedies similar to those of his contemporary Michel Deville.  L'Amant de cinq jours was the last of three such comedies that de Broca made, the others being Le Farceur (1960) and Les Jeux de l'amour (1960).  All three of these films were blessed with the lively presence of rising star Jean-Pierre Cassel, but none found favour with the critics or audiences and remain some of de Broca's most overlooked films.

L'Amant de cinq jours brings together a remarkable quartet of acting talent, with two well-established stars Micheline Presle and François Périer playing an amusing game of mixed doubles with fresh and feisty newcomers Jean Seberg and Jean-Pierre Cassel.  A diva of the French New Wave after her revelation in Jean-Luc Godard's À bout de souffle (1960), Seberg had by this time come to symbolise the liberated modern woman and here she is aptly cast as the hedonistic unfaithful wife to François Périer's cradle-watching stay-at-home hubby.  Cassel revels in the role of the carefree womaniser (as he did for much of his career), whilst Micheline Presle is as seductive as ever as the society belle who expects nothing but unquestioning obedience from her boyish gigolos.  It's not the most flattering portrait of French society circa 1960 but the film humorously encapsulates the sexual revolution that was getting underway around this time.

Adapted from a novel by Françoise Parturier, L'Amant de cinq jours is a mischievous farce on the game of love that might well have been directed by Michel Deville, but, despite its superb casting, it lacks Deville's subtlety and ends up feeling like a half-hearted imitation of a Nouvelle Vague comedy-drama.  Georges Delerue's beautifully wistful score evokes the melancholic romanticism of Truffaut's films, but this seems like an incongruous embellishment to what is a mostly a frivolous entertainment.  From time to time, a more profound and intelligent film looks as if it is about to surface, but it never does, so the New Wave adornments (which de Broca no doubt picked up whilst working as an assistant to Claude Chabrol) look like a pointless indulgence or substitute for originality.  L'Amant de cinq jours isn't perfect but, being more restrained and intimate than its director's subsequent crowdpleasers, it is not without charm.  After the failure of this middle-brow rom-com, De Broca hit his stride with his next film, Cartouche (1962), a rite of passage that marked the beginning of his profitable association with Belmondo.

Film Synopsis

Madeleine and Claire are two close friends who live in Paris.  Madeleine runs a well-known fashion house, while Claire lives with her husband Georges and their two children in an upmarket residence.  On the day that Madeleine is showing her new fashion collection, Claire meets a charming young man named Antoine.  Within 24 hours, Claire has a date with Antoine in his apartment and an affair is well under way.  What Claire doesn't know is that Antoine's comfortable lifestyle is being paid for by his other mistress, who happens to be Madeleine.  Likewise, Antoine has no idea that Claire and Madeleine are acquainted.  When she realises that Antoine is leaving her for Claire, Madeleine decides to host a grand party, to which she will invite not only Antoine, but also Claire and her husband...