"I've never dated like this, and lied to my wife, and I'm not very good at it."
"Obviously, you asked me out."
The few lines in the opening scene point out the core of the French movie "Brief Cheating Documentary" - cheating.
But audiences who go to the bloody dramatic conflict and fragrant intimate moments may be disappointed, because the film always adheres to the subtle and restrained French mood, light but light.
This blockbuster work at the Cannes Film Festival in France is not only about cheating, but also about the morality and desire of middle-aged men and women.
At the bar, Charlotte, a single mother, talks to Simon, a married man. Charlotte went straight in, while Simon was a little forward-looking. But the two soon went to Charlotte's residence to spend the night together.
The second brief meeting at the museum turned the one-night lover into a long-term lover, and the two began the honeymoon period of cheating in honey and oil.
They walked in the city, walked in the suburbs, stepped from friends' apartments to sports venues, and walked from cultural exhibitions to the lakeside forests. The relationship between the two also underwent subtle changes, and the early "simple sexual relationship that had nothing to do with love" evolved into a tacit soulmate.
Charlotte and Simon also begin to explore a new type of threesome relationship, inviting Louis, a woman on the brink of divorce, to join them in their erotic game.
Louis, who derives her passion from the threesome, finally makes up her mind to divorce her husband, and she also destroys Charlotte and Simon's strong lover relationship. With Charlotte's defection, the relationship between the three reached an impasse...
"Brief Cheating Documentary" makes cheating fresh and vulgar, mainly due to its abandonment of carnal desire and emphasis on eros.
The male protagonist Simon is an avoidant personality, with a weak and hesitant personality, tired of coping with the relationship between husband and wife for twenty years, but without the courage to really change. The appearance is ordinary, chattering, and has no sexual charm at first glance. His evaluation of himself is always accurate, such as claiming to be "a man who needs a push", or saying "With a man like me, you are doing charity" at the moment of the Spring Festival.
The heroine Charlotte is the leader of the relationship between the sexes, she is enthusiastic and easy, tugging at the heartstrings of insiders. She is both the initiator and the terminator of the relationship, and she is independent and sober from beginning to end. Simon is not her first cheating partner, just a "true love" for a certain period of time. She is obsessed with lust, just as she is obsessed with the pleasure that ephemeral relationships give her.
The two changed from a purely sexual relationship to a short-lived intimate lover, and the harmonious situation was quickly broken by a third party, and the secret and ambiguous alliance relationship ended. Although the emotions are complex, the texture of the film is very French and light.
Paris is a city with its own romantic character, where you can expect encounters, adventures and new stories.
"A Short Secret Affair" is a roaming movie, following the footsteps of the protagonist's tryst, the audience also appreciates the beautiful scenery, measuring the boundary between the city and the suburbs. Charlotte and Simon walk, walk, and gallop, they are mobile wanderers.
At the same time, "Brief Cheating Documentary" is also a very literary movie. The protagonist's journey is organized in the order on the calendar, which can be regarded as a private diary.
The film consists of fragmentary dialogue, less than 100 minutes long, crammed into a series of trials, conversations and games. It can be said that the character and life of the protagonist are completely revealed and advanced by lengthy dialogue.
The most talked about between lovers is the relationship of bad morality. The cautious Simon indulged in the pleasure of cheating while feeling sorry for his wife. Charlotte, in order to alleviate his guilt, comforted him and said, "Do you love your wife? If love, then there is no betrayal of her. ”
Director Emmanuel Murray has been making the same kind of film for nearly two decades, and "A Brief Affair" is not one of the best, nor will it be the last French sketch with the same flavor.
"Change of Address", released in 2006, tells the story of roommates: men and women live in the same room, but do not develop into lovers. The man thinks about his female student, and the woman advises him and hugs the beauty. The man moved out of the apartment and began to live with the female student, but broke up because of a third party. As a result, men and women returned to cohabitation, but will they continue their "pure friendship" relationship?
2011's "The Art of Love" is a series feature film and a sample of Murray's urban men and women observation: woman A who stays alone and empty has to face up to her physical desires, and her girlfriend contributes her lover at the right time; Woman B's boyfriend cheats, and she falls into a love hunt with a neighbor man; Woman C and her boyfriend decide to practice "open sexual relationships", but the moment of dating someone else begins to hesitate again ... At the end, you will open your eyes and sigh: "Oh, French." ”
2020's "What You Say and Do" revolves around the unethical relationship between a male writer and his cousin: a writer scarred in a polyamorous relationship comes to his cousin's house in the countryside to relax. Her cousin was going home in a few days, and her pregnant cousin received her. During the exchange, the two felt more and more that their souls fitted, so it was logical to cheat. But the day my cousin returns, all passion will be calm.
Murray treats the love of red men and green women to score out and iron, allowing the audience to briefly immerse themselves in the romantic mood he has set up. In an elegant and subtle atmosphere, Murray also explores the philosophy of gender relations in a superficial way, which provokes a shock of established views.
But let's also face one thing: Emmanuel Murray was not the original creator of the style, but the successor of the New Wave director Eric Houmai, who absorbed Houmai's legacy extensively. The above-mentioned film can also be regarded as a variation of Hou Mai's "six moral stories". The diary-style narrative in "Short Cheating Record" is also Hou Mai's trick.
Although Houmai is a representative of the French New Wave, his later works depart from the New Wave rush and seriously explore the emotional problems of middle-class men and women.
The men and women in Hou Mai's stories are always caught in geometric relationship of desire and polygonal character relationship. These rich and idle men and women are always on vacation, outings, and relaxed, exchanging views on art, philosophy, and gender in large conversations.
For example, in "Claire's Knee" in the morality story, the middle-aged diplomat who is about to get married sees the intimacy between the flower season girl and her boyfriend at a friend's house, and he can't help but have the idea of caressing his knee.
With the help of "Six Moral Stories," Houmai expresses his views on morality and desire.
"One of the reasons these stories are called morality stories is that they have almost no physical movement and everything happens in the narrator's head. Stories told by another person may be a little different, or completely different. ”
"Morality is related to customs, which also involves the consideration of customs, the value judgment of good and evil. My film does not attempt to propose a moral standard, but rather to let the viewer come up with his own answer. ”
Looking back at "A Brief Affair Documentary", in the final analysis, it is also a story that explores morality and desire.
For Simon, morality and desire are difficult to have at the same time, and if you choose to follow the morality of marriage and wife, you have to sacrifice your own inflated desires. If he hadn't lied to Charlotte, then he hadn't cheated in 20 years, which meant that desire had been suppressed for years.
Charlotte, a single mother, has a lot less constraints and is more comfortable choosing her desires and hearts. From men to women, from Simon to Louis, she did not feel too guilty, at most only a little melancholy.
Commenting on "Brief Cheating Record" with traditional and simple morality is nothing more than the story of scumbags and green tea, and their wives and children who never appeared are undoubtedly poor victims.
But Murray did not praise or criticize Simon and Charlotte, but calmly analyzed the eros of both sexes and objectively presented the complexity of human nature. As for how to judge, the benchmark is in the hearts of the audience.
lemon