Matt Shea
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Morgan Bell
Cibbuano
David O'Connell
Mountain Fog
Olivier, Olivier
July 22nd 2009 07:33
by Matt Shea
Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland’s has seemingly always had an obsession with identity. It’s a theme that ran right through the heart of her Golden Globe-winning “Europa, Europa”, and was even touched upon in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Three Colours Blue”, which she co scripted.
Yet another of Holland’s meditations on the meaning of identity was her 1992 feature “Olivier, Oliver”, the writer/director’s tale of a young boy who strangely vanishes from his troubled family home in the French countryside only to seemingly reappear six years later. But Holland also boldly explored other dense issues and themes in this particular film, most prominent being her dissection of the modern family.
The early scenes of the film establish the brittle life of a nuclear family consisting of Serge Duval (Francois Cluzet), a country veterinarian, his wife Elisabeth (Brigitte Rouan) and their two children, Nadine (Faye Gatteau) and her younger, 9-year-old brother, Olivier (Emmanuel Morozof). Elisabeth dotes on her son, arousing a jealousy in Nadine, but there's also a strong bond between brother and sister.
One sultry summer’s day, Olivier sets off to deliver food to his sick grandmother and doesn't return. The police are baffled, the family distraught, and as the months go by without a trace from their young son, Serge and Elisabeth grow further apart from one another, each parent taking the occasional opportunity to unleash their grief on an emotionally disturbed Nadine. Eventually the family breaks up under the strain, with Serge going to work in Africa and Elisabeth staying behind with Nadine, the mother still holding on to an unrealistic hope for Olivier’s return.
Cut to six years later and police in Paris make a miraculous find: Under questioning, a fifteen-year-old prostitute (Gregoire Colin) seems to confirm his identity as that of Olivier. He is reunited with his mother and sister, and soon Serge returns from abroad, the family back together again.
But the headstrong Nadine (played as a teen by Marina Golovine) remains unconvinced that this youth really is her brother - he answers all the right questions but in all the wrong ways - and as her parents invite him wholeheartedly into their home, she is left to wonder who he really is and what he’ll do to remain part of a family that may not be his.
In “Olivier, Oliver”, Holland created an exceptionally straightforward picture that benefits from a simple but exceptionally vivid treatment. The screenplay to the film is a bare bone affair, a simple frame from which to hang a collection of themes and subtexts, as well as indulge in some potent symbolism.
Right from the rich heat of the wheat fields at the beginning of the film, “Olivier, Oliver” is packed with a restless and often disturbing sexual energy. It creates an almost fever dream atmosphere that seeps into just about every scene and links almost seamlessly with Holland’s concerns about the family unit. There’s a restlessness in the air that seems to be suffocating the Duvals, with home life often disturbed by Serge and Elisabeth’s petty bickering. The sexuality becomes disturbingly overt later in the film after Olivier’s apparent return, and is then punctuated in some brutal final frames.
All this mysticism and subtext is intriguing, up to a point. And that point is perhaps when it starts getting in the way of the narrative. Holland has so many ideas floating around in this film that the inclusion of some barely makes any sense at all - a bizarre allusion to one character’s psychic powers being a prime example. Added to this is the unfortunate fact that the ultimate fate of Olivier is made a little too plain to the audience very early in the film.
Holland’s background-to-the-foreground technique also interferes with the drawing of the characters. When Serge, Elisabeth and Nadine represent such simple and often overblown archetypes it can be hard to identify with the pain that they feel with Olivier’s disappearance, thus leaving the audience companionless as it tries to navigate the film’s slightly off kilter world. It’s a shame, because there are some very strong performances from the entire cast, both young and old.
So “Olivier, Olivier” ends up being an enticing, then interesting, but strangely unfulfilling experience. Holland is a filmmaker of undoubted talent, but her wealth of ideas got the better of her in the development of this particular work, leading to a film that is admirable for its ambition, but ultimately lacking in execution.
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Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
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Comment by Matt Shea
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Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Thank God there's still somebody on Orble who can write a literate film review of an interesting work, well done mate.
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Really glad you enjoyed the read. I'm not altogether familiar with Cluzet's stuff but Holland is well worth checking out. Europa, Europa gets bogged down a little at certain points, but is a very interesting film and is a little more fully realised than this.