Andre Techine and Eric Rohmer are my favourite directors, but I have to admit that I enjoy watching Rohmer more. I held the two in the balance, and the balance went towards Rohmer, for his sheer joy of existence. Techine shows very often transitory joys, especially at communal celebrations and like Rohmer he has pleasure in showing youth and its seemingly endless possibilities. Rohmer's very young women show seldom extreme pain, whereas in Techine male youth is troubled to the point often of despair. In Rohmer it is the female that he holds dear and in Techine it is the young male. But the balance between the two took a lot of hard thinking. Techine is strong on France's troubled history and in Rohmer it is not such a strong focus. In ' Les Innocents ' ( why am I the first to review it ? ) he portrays a toxic France where the Arab population is on one side and the French are on the other. Both sides in this film live in a balance of hatred/love and for the French the balance falls on the side of hatred more than love, even forming a ' militia ' to kill and maim the Arabs. This film is as troubling as ' The Battle of Algiers ' but Techine tackles the issue from a more personal point of view. He has his handful of characters and it is in this that the drama plays out. Sandrine Bonnaire gives a fine performance as a woman from the North of France travelling to the South, and there she is witness to the tragic world around her. She falls in love with two men, one Arab, the other French, and both these men are entwined in a struggle to the death because of the terrible political issues. Simon La Brosse plays the Frenchman; a young man tortured in body and soul. ( I have to mention for those who are unaware that La Brosse took his own life at the age of 32; a tragedy in itself for such a good actor.) Surrounding this trio are others; Jean Claude Brialy playing an equally tortured homosexual, and a deaf and dumb teenage boy who idolizes the young Arab. I will give no spoilers, but this infernal situation builds to a climax that I found unbearable to watch and that gave me nightmares. I never want to hear the word Coma again. This is a gentle warning to more sensitive viewers who have near death fears. As for the film in itself it is essential Techine and is a great film. His themes are returned to; the Strauss Waltz and its mysterious meanings, the use of rain and ambiguous hetero/homo relationships, and the magic of his imagery, sometimes surreal, sometimes unbearably realistic. I urge viewers to find this elusive film as it adds to the complete portrait of life that Techine is such a master in portraying. Life in all its brutality and beauty. To avoid this director's films is to avoid cinema.
