Ne quittez pas! (2004)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Arthur Joffé

Writers:

Arthur Joffé (writer)
Guy Zilberstein (writer)

Release Date:

18 August 2004 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Fantasy

Cast

Sergio Castellitto	...	Félix Mandel
Michel Serrault	...	Lucien Mandel (voice)
Isabelle Gélinas	...	Lucie Mandel
Rachida Brakni	...	Yaëlle
Dominique Pinon	...	Le clochard
László Szabó	...	Le tailleur
Lisette Malidor	...	Le Prince Noir
Emily Morgan	...	Wendy
Tchéky Karyo	...	Raveu, le banquier
Hélène de Fougerolles	...	L'hôtesse de l'air
Maurice Bernart	...	Le rabbin
Chantal Neuwirth	...	La passagère de l'avion
Jeff Mirza	...	Le chauffeur de taxi londonien
Vincent Sgonamillo	...	Léo
Bruno Flender	...	Jérôme

Also Known As:

Local Call (USA) (festival title)

Runtime:

France:102 min | USA:102 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Les Films du Losange

A tale about love and identity

Arthur Joffé, a well known photographer, documentaries' film maker and director explores one of the most intriguing and unresolved sentiments of human being: love and identity, in a ironic but yet thoughtful manner where the action performs in an actual scenario, finds its roots in the past and then unites the two time spans in harmony.

The situation develops in an everyday circumstance and investigates not only the father-son relationship but also the nature of love, through a travel in history, both public and personal, allowing us to ask ourselves the perennial question of who we are.

What is most interesting in the film is the nature this relationship develops. The calls to the "beyond" are just an alibi, or yet a play of the imagination, a way to translate a form of "communication", with Jewish humor, into nowadays times. The anxiety of the search, the necessity of the search of the father's coat till the point to face diverse adversities that the main personage, interpreted by a greatly-expressive Sergio Castellito, encounters along the path only accentuates the Freudian sense of a hidden culpability towards the father.

The end constitutes a natural cycle where the son finally finds out and understands the reason of the importance of the coat. The end constitutes the moment where the son re-finds the father, recognizes and accepts his past and can look forwards to his future.

It is an articulate comedy in both a classical and modern sense. It develops like a tragedy, without losing its humor, and ends up with a poetic conclusion that makes us smile and think that yes, there's a sense behind our lives, a past, a story and an identity.