A NOS AMOURS

Known for the spontaneity and unsparing realism of his work, Maurice Pialat is regarded as one of France's most audacious and admired filmmakers. He is a talented painter and actor as well. His partially autobiographical films deal with the crises provoked by the stresses of life's transitional stages, to which the spectator can readily relate. From the sexual politics explored in “Loulou” in 1980, Pialat presents a misanthropic view of family life in A NOS AMOURS, his 6th feature. Suzanne (Sandrine Bonnaire) is a nubile 15-year old whose emerging sexuality seems to threaten her relationship with her overbearing father (played by Pialat), her effeminate but obviously attracted brother, and her envious, neurotic mother. At summer camp in the South of France, Suzanne loses her virginity to an American picked up in a bar, thereafter sleeping with anyone she meets except for Luc, her former boyfriend, the only one she's ever cared about. Her promiscuity enrages her family and life at home becomes unbearable, particularly after the father moves out. After enduring verbal and physical punishment, Suzanne leaves home also. The family seems to be on an even keel eventually but the parents' disturbingly real explosion of fury at a dinner party dispels the illusion of “nos amours.”