“My Worst Nightmare” (“Mon pire cauchemar”, 2011, directed
by Anne Fontaine) is a situation comedy (evoking retrospect of the sitcoms of
the 1950s) and it is also a satire of modern (and may not so new) French
culture and “civilization”, the way you studied it in high school French class.
Agathe (Isaebelle Huppert) is a mid-life wealthy art dealer
living in a swanky Paris apartment with her proper husband, a sixty-something book
publishing executive Francois (Andre Dussollier). There is a lot of culture but no physicality. Their tween son plays video games with a
friend who happens to “belong” to single (and womanizing) homeless dad Patrick (Benoit
Poelvoorde) who does contract construction work while living out of a
truck. Child services wants to take
Patrick’s son away and place him in a foster home. Patrick hires on to renovate the rich couple’s
apartment. Pretty soon, the
opportunities for “sin” and comedy mount.
The movie does present some real issues. One is “loose kids”. Social services in liberal welfare-oriented
France get intrusive indeed. Big
government – believe it! But the
possible solution is obvious. The
question is, will Agathe take on more responsibility, for other people’s kids,
to get what she wants? Well, she has to
know what she wants. I forgot to mention
first, another issue is marital instability – which occurs twice. It’s odd that Francois announces that he is leaving,
and thinks he is still potent enough for heterosexual passion with a woman who
could be more nubile. Conservative
writer George Gilder (“Men and Marriage”, 1986) would have fun with this one.
Another issue is the slight at the book publishing industry
itself. Francois describes his job as
acting as a gatekeeper of writers who think they have something to say (even by
monitoring the book signing parties), when he know he doesn’t. There are some lines where “publishing” is
confused with “printing” (like with abolitionist William Garrison in PBS’s
recent series “The Abolitionists”).
Perhaps Francois acts as a literary agent. But the whole world of “getting published”
(and the need even for new authors to get agents) has been turned upside down
by the Web and on-demand printing. The
film, as a comedy, doesn’t get into that.
The museum art work also figures into the story. The credits
name a tremendous list of paintings and sculptures, particularly by gay artist
Robert Mapplethorpe, whose work inspired so much ire from social conservatives
in the US (particularly when he tried to get NEA funding).
The official site is here. The availability date from Strand
Releasing is Feb. 5, 2013.
I received a screener of this film.
There is a “review” of the short film “Mister Proof: How to
Disappear” on my main “BillBoushka” blog yesterday, January 23.
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