“The Big Picture” (the French title is “L’homme qui voulait
vivre sa vie”, which means “The man who would want to live his life”), from
Eric Gartigau (novel by Douglas Kennedy with the U.S. title) does indeed echo “The
Talented Mr. Ripley”. Paul Exben (Romain
Duris) has it all as a big-shot lawyer, but can’t keep his wife Sara (Marina
Fois) away from an earthy photographer Greg Kremer (Eric Ruf), who is
physically less appealing than the lively, debonair and slender Paul (who also
has conspicuously more chest hair). There are small kids in the family, and
Paul is a good pap. But when Paul confronts Greg and Greg’s old-fashioned
studio, he “manslaughters” Greg, and goes on the lam, and destroys all the
evidence.
He winds up in Montenegro, rents a secluded old place on the mountainous coast, and
gradually takes on Greg’s identity, merely by playing with Greg’s hobby and
attracting local attention to his own artistic talents. Now, however, he has to keep a low profile
and live by his wits to stay out of jail.
Some of the locals are indeed interesting, such as the 60-something
Bartholome (Niels Arestrup).
There are a couple of scenes that play the card of some people objecting to being photographed in public (because of Facebook tagging?)
There are a couple of scenes that play the card of some people objecting to being photographed in public (because of Facebook tagging?)
The film even sets all of this up in the opening, when the
Parisian establishment lawyer Paul counsels a teenager about to inherit money
not to drop school and work just to take up photography. The “idee fixe” is planted.
Can one really “become” someone else? This is not a question about "identity theft". I’ve fantasized the idea of waking up and
finding I have a 27-year-old body and the life memory of another
musician-composer as well as my own. Another chance? I wonder if any principle
in physics or general relativity precludes that idea. But of course, I can only be myself, for all
eternity. I may find someone who thinks
like me and expresses himself life me, and has two or three generations ahead of him in life, but – well –
the original music really is very different, even if the worldview is
similar. At a certain level, everyone is
unique. But the sci-fi film possibilities could be
there.
The film was produced by EuropaCorp and is distributed in
the IS by Digital Factory.
Wikipedia attribution link for Little Canyon (top image). Although it looks like Provence in France, it’s
actually in northeastern Alabama; I visited it in 1989.
I saw this at the West End in Washington DC, before a
relatively large crowd for 5 PM on a weekday.
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