En plein coeur (1998)
Directed by Pierre Jolivet

Film Review

The idea of a wealthy middle-aged man abandoning his wife and home for a much younger woman in a doomed romance is hardly virgin territory, but once in a while a film is made which seems to re-invent the formula with astonishing freshness and impact.  En plein coeur is one such film.  It is a film which engages the spectator from the very first scene and careers along at a fair pace, never letting up the intensity of the drama for a second.

The film is based on a popular novel, En cas de malheur, by French writer Georges Simenon, best known for his detective fiction (including the Maigret series).  The novel was first made into a film in 1958 by director Claude Autant-Lara, a film which saw the remarkable (and scarcely believable) pairing of Jean Gabin and Brigitte Bardot. Director Pierre Jolivet gives Simenon's story a darker, more film noir feel, similar in mood to the other thrillers he made around this time - Simple mortel (1991) and Fred (1997).

Forty years on, the story has lost none of its impact and flair, although Jolivet makes the youth culture more visible in his film to emphasise the difference between the two worlds inhabited by the wealthy lawyer Farnèse and the penniless loser Cécile.

The film is brilliantly assembled as a frenzied psychological thriller.  All the way through, the audience is aware of a sense of impending doom, which adds a hopeless tragic dimension to the love affair.  The drama in the last twenty minutes is palpable, with a whole spectrum of human emotions brilliantly captured on film.

The acting performances are, almost without exception, genuinely impressive, and it is this which gives the film its impact and credibility.  The casting is near-faultless. Virginie Ledoyen is the lively but vulnerable kid unable to choose between not just her two lovers, but also the two worlds they offer her. Gérard Lanvin plays the middle-aged lawyer who rediscovers youthful love and is unable to resist it, even though he may lose everything as a result.  Carole Boquet is stunning as Lanvin's cheated wife, conveying moods ranging from blind incomprehension to venomous fury with equal conviction.  Then there is Guillaume Canet who plays Cécile's shady ex-boyfriend, providing a genuine sense of danger and menace without really appearing the villain of the piece.

The film is perhaps a little tainted by its somewhat dated portrayal of love and infidelity, relevant in Simenon's day, but less acceptable to today's more sophisticated cinema audience.   Rather than tackle that potential fault head-on, you feel that Jolivet is using his impressive cinematography to paper over the cracks.  Look too closely, and the film may just fail to convince.  However, viewed from an acceptable distance, it impresses as a compelling, vibrant and entertaining piece of cinema.

Film Synopsis

Desperate to find the money to pay their rent, two adolescent girls Cécile and Samira attempt to hold up a jeweller's, but it all goes wrong.  Samira is arrested and Cécile turns to a lawyer Michel Farnèse to defend her, having found his business card in a wallet she stole earlier. Michel agrees to defend the two girls in court, but his wife Viviane suspects that his motivations are more to do with lust than charity.  Sure enough, when Michel wins the case, he begins a passionate affair with Cécile.  However, Cécile's former boyfriend Vincent is none too keen on this development and is determined to win her back…