Je rentre à la maison (2001)

Director:

Manoel de Oliveira

Writers:

Manoel de Oliveira (scenario and dialogue)
Jacques Parsi (scenario consultant: literature)

Release Date:

8 June 2001 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

The comfortable daily routines of aging Parisian actor Gilbert Valence, 76, are suddenly shaken when he learns that his wife...

Plot Keywords:

Car Crash | Actor | Aging | Death Of Son In Law | Backstage

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Michel Piccoli	...	Gilbert Valence
Catherine Deneuve	...	Marguerite
John Malkovich	...	John Crawford, Film Director
Antoine Chappey	...	George
Leonor Baldaque	...	Sylvia
Leonor Silveira	...	Marie
Ricardo Trêpa	...	Guard
Jean-Michel Arnold	...	Doctor
Adrien de Van	...	Ferdinand
Sylvie Testud	...	Ariel
Isabel Ruth	...	Milkmaid
Andrew Wale	...	Stephen
Robert Dauney	...	Haines
Jean Koeltgen	...	Serge
Mauricette Gourdon	...	Guilhermine, the Housekeeper

Also Known As:

I Go Home (Australia) (TV title)
I'm Going Home (Portugal)
Vou Para Casa (Portugal)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

France | Portugal

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Australia:G | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Netherlands:AL | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:T | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG

Company:

Madragoa Filmes

Trivia:

Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2001 (#05)

Goofs:

Continuity: From the 2nd to the 3rd Café scene, the headlines on both Le Figaro and Liberátion do not change, and it is supposed to be another day.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Faust - Der Tragödie erster Teil (2009)

Soundtrack:

Le Pont Mirabeau

A moving and subtle masterpiece

Anyone who thinks this movie is boring is a horse's ass who should stick to car chase movies. This is a brilliant, moving, and subtle film that is all the more poignant because, it's director being a nonagenarian, it could well be his swan song, and that of its 76 year old principal as well. De Oliveira, like his lead character, will not compromise his principles by dumbing down his material. Much of the film is silent, i.e., with no dialogue precisely because it is a film, a visual medium, not a play. The done is set by De Oliveira's daring opening, which consists of its actor-character enacting the finale of an Ionesco play, which goes on for over 15 minutes. A daring move that pays off because, perhaps predictably, what happens in the play is a predictor of what is to come. The film is not unlike King Lear, in that it stresses the sadness of seeing one who once had greatness, and who still has flashes of it, in decline and perhaps at the end of his powers. It is a sublime meditation on the inevitability of death and the foolishness of fighting it. A minor masterpiece.

Rating: 9/10