"BENJAMIN," which opened yesterday at the
Paris Theater, is a sick, stylish libertine farce, in color, set in
18th-century France and directed by
Michael Deville, whose earlier films were not released in this country. It stars
Pierre Clementi as a young man—somewhere between
Tom Jones and
Rousseau's
Emile—who, at 17, rides with his mangy old tutor to the estate of his aunt, where he is to learn the ways of the world. The rest of the movie is a series of attempts to seduce him and
Catherine Deneuve, who plays an orphan living with her chaper-one on a neighboring estate.
The movie is entirely tongue-in-cheek, a parody on all kinds of seduction comedies. There are so many parodistic allusions that "
Benjamin" is almost a tapestry of scenes from other films—"TomJones," "
Mademoiselle,"
Liaisons Dangereuses," "
Marienbad." There is a sense of enameled decadence: teeth and jeweled rings and switches torn from trees are always doing minor damage to someone—as lovely, elegant tableaus vivants unfold in the
French countryside. Miss
Deneuve is in love with
Michel Piccoli, the lover of Mr. Clementi's aunt,
Michele Morgan, who has not been exactly estranged from her nephew, who loves Miss Deneuve, who is not indifferent to him either, or he to his aunt, who is really desperately in love with Michel Piccoli, who loves Miss Deneuve. Not "
La Ronde" exactly, but a kind of current that could blow them all either way.
There is really no plot, just a succession of other characters, and flirtations, and falls into the bathtub, and surprises in the garden house, very graceful and wicked but—since the thing is also a rather redundant, elaborate tease—not always fascinating. The dénouement is very odd, quite different in style from the rest of the movie—less formal, in fact, more relenting and natural—and then more sharply satirical than anything that has gone before.
The movie's humor is a kind of special taste, like cloves or pepper, or all things polite with a tinge
of viciousness. It is quite beautiful and elegant, though, at times.
"Hypothesè," a wordless French animated cartoon about holes in a computer card, is a nice short playing with "Benjamin."
BENJAMIN, screenplay by
Nina Companeez; directed by
Michel Deville and produced by Mag Bodard, a Part film.
Marianne Productions co-production presented by
Paramount Pictures. At the Paris Theater,
58th Street west of
Fifth Avenue.
Running time:
108 minutes.
Countess . . . . . Michele Morgan
Anne . . . . . Catherine Deneuve
Benjamin . . . . . Pierre Clementi
Philippe . . . . . Michel Piccoli
Marion . . . . .
Francine Berge
Celestine . . . . .
Anna Gael
Victorine . . . . .
Catherine Rouvel
Camille . . . . .
Jacques Dufilho
Woman . . . . .
Odile Versois
- published: 08 Aug 2015
- views: 3501