I Want to Go Home (1989)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Alain Resnais

Writer:

Jules Feiffer (writer)

Release Date:

7 September 1989 (West Germany)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Joey Wellman, a cantankerous American cartoonist, accepts an invitation to come to an exhibition in Paris...

Plot Keywords:

Party | Cartoonist | Meeting | Lecturer | Song

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Adolph Green	...	Joey Wellman
Laura Benson	...	Elsie Wellman
Linda Lavin	...	Lena Apthrop
Gérard Depardieu	...	Christian Gauthier
Micheline Presle	...	Isabelle Gauthier
John Ashton	...	Harry Dempsey
Geraldine Chaplin	...	Terry Amstrong
Caroline Sihol	...	Dora Dempsey
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Catherine Arditi	...	La boulangère
Albert Benchamoul	...	Un vieux villageois
Françoise Bertin	...	La cliente de la marchande de légumes
Patrick Bonnel	...	Le boucher
Charlotte Bonnet	...	La femme chauffeur de taxi
Jean Champion	...	Le chauffeur de taxi / Taxi driver
Emmanuelle Chaulet	...	La secrétaire de Gauthier / Secretary of Gauthier
Jean-Marc Cozic	...	Tintin
Pierre Decazes	...	Le garagiste
Tony Dias	...	Valentina
Guillaume Farny	...	Bateman
Georges Fricker	...	Roxy Darcel, le compagnon de Terry
Alain Fromager	...	L'étudiant dans le bureau de Gauthier
François-Eric Gendron	...	Lionel Cohn-Martin
Raphaëline Goupilleau	...	L'étudiante dans le bureau de Gauthier
Isabelle Habiague	...	La jeune femme qui chante
Lucienne Hamon	...	Mme Roget / Mrs. Roget
Peter Hudson	...	Le Spectre
Jacques Le Servot	...	Spirit
Jean Prévôt	...	Un vieux villageois
Anne Roussel	...	La jeune femme fatiguée / The tired woman
Ludivine Sagnier	...	La petite fille de la place du village
Agnès Seelinger	...	La domestique du manoir
Gisèle Soban	...	Elektra
Anne Teyssèdre	...	La jeune femme dans le bureau de Gauthier
Nicolas Trong	...	Le jeune homme dans l'avion
Isabelle Turpault	...	Catwoman
Vitaliy Versace	...	Son
Michel Weinstadt	...	Corto Maltese
Isabelle Wolfe	...	Laureline (as Isabelle Canet-Wolfe)
Abbes Zahmani	...	Le Concombre Masqué

Also Known As:

Je veux rentrer à la maison (France)

Runtime:

Germany:100 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Italy:T | West Germany:12

Company:

Films A2

Where cats pop up

This is an absurd film, and in my book, that's a big compliment. It gives us a glimpse into the colourful world of Elsie and Joey Wellman. She's an ingénue from Ohio who emigrates to Paris to pursue Culture, which she found sadly lacking in the home of Joey, her exuberant cartoonist father. In "On connaît la chanson", it was songs Resnais used to show what was going on in his characters' minds; here, how could it be anything but cartoons? Though they haven't talked in two years, Joey's cartoon cat keeps intruding into Elsie's thoughts in a black-and-white bubble, usually scolding her. And a cutely vitriolic little cat it is! When Joey decides to visit Elsie on pretext of a cartoon exhibit, a major crisis threatens...

Resnais, who has worked with the likes of Enki Bilal (in "La vie est un roman"), obviously loves cartoons and cartoonists, yet also sympathizes with pretty over-intellectual young women like Elsie (a predecessor of Camille in "On connaît la chanson"). Many of his later movies use inspiredly silly elements to treat serious problems. Watching this one, I wondered about his influence on people like Hal Hartley. Strongly recommended to film-lovers, but probably not to the average movie-goer.