neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Cet Amour-Là
	Josée Dayan Jeanne Moreau, Aymeric Demarigny 2001		In the twilight of her career, the esteemed (and vanity-free) French actress Jeanne Moreau — un-nipped, un-tucked and un-liposucked — takes on a most appropriate role: real-life author Marguerite Duras, who, in her later years, entered into a momentous love affair with a much younger man named Yann Andréa. "Cet Amour-Là," adapted for the screen and directed by Josée Dayan, is based on the novel of the same name by Andréa. It purports to recount details of the last major romance of Duras' life. As a movie, "Cet Amour-Là" is a fairly intriguing profile of a self-destructive artist and her most zealous admirer, until the couple's mutually detrimental behavior becomes as draining to us as it was to them. Andréa, played with a perpetual look of unease by bespectacled Aymeric Demarigny, is depicted as more worshipful assistant than paramour. Idolizing the reclusive, alcoholic Duras, Andréa established an epistolary relationship with her in 1975. Five years later, he came to her seaside apartment, and they began their stormy liaison. The age difference between Duras and Andréa was huge, as it is between Moreau and Demarigny, but Moreau is still so sensuous that she legitimizes the idea of this unconventional love.