Je rentre à la maison (2001)

Director:

Manoel de Oliveira

Writers:

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

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:

Actor | Aging | Death Of Wife | Film Within A Film | English

Awards:

4 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
Vania	...	Organ Grinder
Jacques Parsi	...	Friend of the Agent
Armel Monod	...	Second Friend of the Agent
Jean Chicot	...	Waiter
Christian Ameri	...	Bistro Patron
Bruno Guillot	...	Street Thug
Bernard Sanchez	...	Bistro Patron Carrying Le Figaro
Jean-Luc Horvais	...	Bistro Patron Carrying Le Monde
Nathalie Guéraud	...	Agent's Secretary
Madame Duteil	...	School Director
Catherine Trembloy	...	Saleswoman at Art Store
Vina Hiridjee	...	Autograph Seeker #1
Caroline Lavallée	...	Autograph Seeker #2
Emmanuelle Fèvre	...	Make-Up Woman
Philippe Mangin	...	Hairdresser
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Burns	...	Equipe tournage Américaine
Marlon Courbin
Eddie Crew	...	Equipe tournage américaine
Stephen Croce	...	Equipe tournage américaine
Max Seide	...	Equipe tournage américaine

Directed by
Manoel de Oliveira

Writing credits
Manoel de Oliveira		(scenario and dialogue)
Jacques Parsi		(scenario consultant: literature)
Eugène Ionesco		(play "Le roi se meurt")
William Shakespeare		(play "The Tempest")
James Joyce		(book "Ulysses")

Produced by
Paulo Branco	....	producer

Cinematography by
Sabine Lancelin

Film Editing by
Valérie Loiseleux

Casting by
Marion Touitou

Production Design by
Yves Fournier

Costume Design by
Isabel Branco

Makeup Department
Emmanuelle Fèvre	....	key makeup artist
Philippe Mangin	....	key hair stylist

Production Management
Mohand Hadjlarbi	....	unit manager
Alexandre Meliava	....	unit production manager
Philippe Rey	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Olivier Bouffard	....	assistant director
José Maria Vaz da Silva	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Bernard Bridon	....	property master

Sound Department
Jean-François Auger	....	sound mixer
John Fewell	....	sound effects editor
Henri Maïkoff	....	sound
Yves-Marie Omnes	....	boom operator

Camera and Electrical Department
Christian Magis	....	gaffer

Music Department
Slovenská Filharmónia	....	orchestra

Other crew
Júlia Buisel	....	script supervisor
Marielle Duigou	....	production assistant

Thanks
Marcel Bozonnet	....	thanks
Daniel Jean	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Madragoa Filmes (co-production)
• Gemini Films (co-production)
• France 2 Cinéma (co-production)
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (participation)
• Canal+ (participation)
• Instituto do Cinema, Audiovisual e Multimédia (ICAM) (participation)
• Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP) (participation) (as RTP-Radiotelevisão Portuguesa)

Distributors

• Gemini Films (2001) (France) (theatrical)
• Aire Films S.L. (2001) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Alcine Terran (2002) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Arsenal Filmverleih (2001) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Artificial Eye (2002) (UK) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Filmmuseum Distributie (2002) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Films de l'Elysée, Les (2002) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Les Films Séville (2002) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Mikado (2001) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Milestone Film & Video (2002) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Polyfilm Verleih (2002) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Xenix Filmdistribution (2001) (Switzerland) (theatrical) (Suisse Romande) (Suisse Allemande)
• Dolmen Home Video (2006) (Italy) (DVD)
• Filmmuseum Distributie (200?) (Netherlands) (video)
• Odessa Entertainment (2011) (Japan) (DVD)
• Taki Corporation (2003) (Japan) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Éditions Gallimard  book publisher: "Ulysses" de James Joyce, 1929 renouvelée en 1957 sous le title "Ulysse"
• Éditions Gallimard  book publisher: "Le roi se meurt" de Eugène Ionesco, 1965
• Art Group, The  thanks: Painting "The Singing Butler" de Jack Vettriano
• Adami  thanks (as L'ADAMI)
• Arane  titles and opticals
• Assurances Continentales, Les  insurances
• Cerruti  thanks
• Mairie de Paris  thanks
• Prefecture de Paris  thanks
• Studio-Théâtre de Stains  thanks (as Les Studios de Stains)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

France | Portugal

Language:

French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

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 | Singapore:PG

Company:

Madragoa Filmes

Trivia:

Le Figaro is considered a right-wing newspaper in France. Therefore, the Café scenes are a joke with the average conservative French man.

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:

Old Comrades

Autobiography of an Ancient Director

This film by 92-year-old Portuguese film director Manoel De Oliveira is an 86-minute close observation of an elderly actor who seems to be mainly a stage actor. The film opens with a 15-minute scene from Ionesco's "Le roi meurt," in which the actor (Michel Piccoli) goes through the never-say-die speech of the 280-year-old king. After the performance, he is greeted backstage with the news that his wife, daughter, and son-in-law have been killed in a car accident. The rest of the film follows him in his everyday routines, into another performance (this time in Shakespeare's "The Tempest"), and then on to a film of James Joyce's "Ulysses." In between we watch him buy shoes, quarrel with his agent, play with his orphaned grandson, and drink espresso at his favorite cafe.

De Oliveira has a habit of filming performances at odd levels. For example, in "Le roi meurt," Piccoli has his back to the camera the entire time. During a quarrel with his agent, only Piccoli's feet in his new shoes are shown. He bashes the heels against the pavement when he's mad, rocks them back and forth when he's pleased--it's all there. When he is playing Buck Mulligan in "Ulysses" we only hear his performance, and gauge it by the reactions on the face of the film director (John Malkovich). The lengths De Oliveira goes to to confound his actors' egos and the audience's expectations are inventive and a bit peculiar.

I sensed that this film was more about De Oliveira than about the characters in the story. There isn't much dialog and not much character development. The theme of the king who will not die, who is egomaniacal beyond reason, perhaps is De Oliveira talking to himself. He makes movies into his 90s because it is his habit. He should be dead by now, but he's not, and because of that he has watched everyone he loves die before him. The possibility of trying to start a new life with a young starlet that is offered to Piccoli must also have happened to De Oliveira. He won't make himself ridiculous that way. "I'm not Casals," the actor says when told of the musician's marriage at the age of 82 to a teenager. I can hear our director saying that, too.

What he wants to do is stop working, rest, and mourn his losses. This is, I feel, a personal film and all the more moving for it.