Wild Grass

I went into Wild Grass, the 48th film by 87-year-old director Alain Resnais, with false hopes. The film, which opened the 47thThe New York Film Festival, boasts Matthieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos in the cast. The two French actors have proven to have marvelous on-screen chemistry, displaying enormous warmth and humor in Arnaud Desplechin's Kings and Queen and A Christmas Tale. But they are relegated to supporting roles in Wild Grass. Amalric plays a compassionate, bumbling police officer for the occasional comic relief. Devos' role is even smaller; she is the main character's best friend and doesn't appear until the film is nearly half over.

The good news is you needn't nurse these expectations and can appreciate Wild Grass for the fine, odd, and unpredictable film that it is. Based on a novel by Christian Gailly, the film explores an unlikely romance that begins with a stolen wallet. Marguerite Muir's (Sabine Azéma) is robbed after a successful shoe shopping expedition in Paris. George Palet (André Dussollier) finds her wallet in the car park of a shopping mall, and from that point on, enters a state of constant torment.

He becomes obsessed with the idea of Marguerite Muir, an umarried dentist who lives in the suburbs of Paris. Marguerite sports a spectularly head of frizzy red unruly hair. She flies a private plane, and, unfortunately for George and his strangely understanding wife (Anne Consigny), wants nothing to do with the persistent stranger who continues to call and write despite her clear protestations.

But Marguerite doesn't quite want her suitor to give up on her either. Before long, she also finds herself in a state of torment. In one hilarious, cringeworthy montage sequence illustrating the dentist's inner turmoil, we witness patient after patient in the dental chair recoiling from Margueritte's sharp instruments, making the same awful declaration: You are causing me pain.

Though Wild Grass is ostensibly a romance, it's also a cold film. It's difficult for the romantic leads to warm up to each other. (How would you feel about a man who slashes your car tires in frustration?) It's also difficult for the audience to warm up to George and Margueritte. And what is wrong with George's beautiful wife, Suzanne, who encourages her husband in his pursuit of another woman? We are kept even further at a distance from these characters by the film's narrator, who continues to question the facts throughout the film.

Wild Grass is filled with frequent bursts of unexpected humor. Almaric, especially, gets constant laughs as the police officer enlisted in the case of the missing wallet. Resnais's film keeps you guessing even beyond the audacious ending.