"The Trilogy: On the Run; An Amazing Couple; After
Life"
Three very different stories are tied together in a
masterly way by Belgian actor turned director Lucas
Belvaux as he begins his ambitious work with the story
of Bruno Le Roux (Belvaux), an activist revolutionary
escaping from a 15-year stint in prison for murder. He
heads back to Grenoble to mete out revenge on those
who betrayed him and rekindle past relations in part
one of "The Trilogy: On the Run."
Part two of "The Trilogy" takes a very different turn
as Belvaux focuses on Alain (Francois Morel) and
Cecile Costes (Ornella Muti), an upper middle-class
couple facing a crisis induced by his secret visits to
doctor friend Georges (Bernard Mazzinghi). Alain is
certain that he is dying of cancer but keeps this
little fact from Cecile who suspects, because of his
odd behavior, that he is having an affair. Her strange
behavior, because of this suspicion, prompts Alain to
suspect her of infidelity, too, in "An Amazing
Couple."
This brings us to the third installment of "The
Trilogy" where police detective Pascal Manise (Gilbert
Melki) is trying to repair a tarnished career by
hunting down and capturing Le Roux. He also faces the
daily ritual of supplying his wife, Agnes (Dominique
Blanc), with morphine to fuel her decade plus
addiction, but the mob wants Le Roux dead and they
hold Agnes's drugs hostage to force Pascal to comply
in "After Life."
Taken as individual films, the three pieces of "The
Trilogy" are interesting, entertaining and showcase
the filmmaking talent of Lucas Belvaux with each film,
in and of itself, being good but not great. It is when
you see the three films in succession that you can
appreciate the subtle weaving of the stories and
characters as the focus shifts from one film to the
next. Belvaux adds another level of complexity to the
project by switching genres in each movie, too.
"On the Run," rightly, leads the trilogy with its
gritty film noir thriller about revenge, although it
is tempered with moments of kindness. The film grabs
your attention right away as sirens blare and shots
are fired as Bruno makes good his escape from prison.
It looks like he'll make a clean getaway when they run
into a roadblock of heavily armed cops. Le Roux makes
a run for it, smashing through the barrier amidst a
blaze of gunfire. He makes it through unscathed but
his partner, Jean-Jean, doesn't fare so well and gets
himself demised.
Bruno heads for Grenoble to settle old scores with
mobster Jaquillat (Patrick Deschampes), whom he
suspects of betraying him 15 years earlier, and look
up his old colleague and lover Jeanne (Catherine
Frot). Any plans to pick up where he left of with the
former revolutionary are dashed when he learns that
she is happily married, a mother of two and a
schoolteacher. She has given up her past life,
disgusted by the indiscriminate violence and death the
likes of Bruno can inflict on the innocent. "They're
irrelevant," he says. "Not to me!" she retorts. Le
Roux's militant return to his old ways is softened
when he comes upon a woman, in the bad side of town,
being beaten by a drug dealer. He rescues Agnes and
helps her score some dope to take care of her morphine
habit. But, the police have a dragnet on the city and
Agnes helps Bruno find refuge - in the form of friend
Cecile's country home.
Part two of "The Trilogy" takes a decidedly different
direction as "An Amazing Couple" focuses on Alain and
Cecile. He is a success lawyer secretly consulting his
physician friend, Dr. Georges, to confirm, as he
suspects, that he has cancer. The doctor tells him
there is no problem and a simple procedure will cure
him but Alain keeps this information from Cecile,
certain that he is dying. When Cecile notices the
secrecy and catches her husband in some white lies she
suspects there is infidelity afoot. She asks her
friend Agnes if her policeman husband Pascal will help
her find out what Alain is up to but the cop is more
interested in attractive Cecile than in tailing Alain.
Things get more complicated when Alain notices that
Cecile is acting strangely and decides that she is
having an extramarital fling and begins following her.
This comedic farce is about as far a departure from
"On the Run" as can be. While Alain tries to cover up
what he believes is cancer he notices that Pascal
keeps turning up in his life. Suddenly, his
hypochondrium takes a back seat to paranoia as he
tries to prove Cecile's infidelity. He develops a
conspiracy theory and suspects everyone of trying to
do him in. He questions the familial fidelity of his
two grown children, his friends and his doctor. He
even believes that the Mafia is out to get him - after
all, Cecile is Italian. Meanwhile, Cecile is being
misled by Pascal into believing that Alain is, in
fact, having an affair with Agnes. This drawing room
style comedy, with all of its twists, turns and
mistaken beliefs is laugh out load funny at times,
thanks to Alain's delusions, secrecy and paranoia. "An
Amazing Couple" is an odd companion piece with the
other entries in "The Trilogy."
The last installment, "After Life," takes a more
somber tone than the first two films as we become more
deeply involved in Agnes and Pascal. We know already
that Agnes is a morphine addict supplied by her
policeman-husband for more than a decade. When Le Roux
escapes prison, Pascal takes chase in hopes of getting
back into the good graces at the police station. But,
when mobster Jaquillat blackmails Pascal - no more
morphine unless he gets rid of Bruno - the cop is
conflicted between finding Le Roux, courting Cecile
and helping Agnes get a fix.
Agnes, for the first time in all of the years of being
an addict, is without her precious, needed morphine.
She blames Pascal for her tormenting and painful
withdrawal, not knowing that he is helpless to procure
her fix. He must kill Bruno in cold blood if he is to
get her drugs but cannot tell Agnes this fact. She
accuses Pascal of not loving her any more and stomps
out to find her own fix. When she is beaten by a drug
dealer, Bruno happens by and saves her from the thug.
He promises to help her find a fix if she will help
him find a place to stay. Agnes borrows Cecile's
bright red Audi and drives Le Roux to temporary
safety. But, her hopes of easing her withdrawal pains
continues as neither Pascal nor Bruno can produce the
goods for her.
You can watch any one of these films as a standalone
and enjoy it. But, it is the combination of the three
films, each very different from the others, that makes
"The Trilogy" special. It is being compared to Akira
Kurosawa's "Rashomon," which tells one story from
three different viewpoints. I, personally, find "The
Trilogy" to have more of a kinship with Krzyzstof
Kieslowski's trilogy, "Trois couleurs:" "Red," "Blue"
& "White." That film, too, told three different
stories with the characters appearing in each film
with varying degrees of importance. What makes
Belvaux's work so compelling if its release as a
single body of work. "The Trilogy" is definitely a
case where the whole work is greater than the sum of
its parts. I give it an A-, with each installment
getting a B.
For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com
robin@reelingreviews.com
laura@reelingreviews.com
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