I saw it a long time ago, and I remember liking it. I wasn’t being too critical of craft and form in those days, so I can only draw that memory from the appeal of the story. I haven’t seen it since.
The Resnais film from the 70s that I feel is really a fantastic gem, and sadly forgotten, is Providence from 1977. It stars John Gielgud, Ellen Burstyn, Dirk Bogard and Elaine Stritch and it’s a charater piece about a patriarch who is a washed-up novelist and his interactions with his children. Look for this one, it’s a genuine treat.
It’s a masterpiece about the French national character. The three leads embody aspects of it and intersect in different ways.
Resnais and Grualt use Dr. Henri Laborit the way Ed Wood uses Bela Lugosi in “Glen or Glenda” top comment on the action in an analagous way.
The endingis extremely grim as the “American Uncle” i revealed to be a ruined building in the South Bronx.
Rodney: Glad to hear that Roger responded and it is interesting that, he too, needs to see Mon Oncle d’Amerique. I haven’t seen it, except in the YouTube clips. Another Resnais film very worthwhile, as I recall, although it was many years ago that I saw it, was La Guerre est Finie (The War is Over) from 1966. Yves Montad plays in it, and it has all the usual brilliant Resnais touches. I have seen both Stavisky and Providence, but again, it was a long time ago, and I need to re-watch them. Resnais is definitely a filmmaker overdue for a re-evaluation, although none of his films that I have seen so far have had the initial impact on me that Hiroshima and Last Year at Marienbad did. Le Guerre est Finie came close, as did Muriel, but Stavisky and Providence felt a bit flat when I first watched them. It will be interesting to see what Roger Ebert has to say about Mon Oncle d’Amerique.
Rodney Welch
A few days ago I wrote Roger Ebert to say that I could not find his review of Alain Resnais’ film “Mon Oncle d’Amerique.” I thought for sure he had seen it, because he’s seen everything in the entire world, and this 1980 movie won a lot of awards and made some Best Of lists.
Just now I received an e-mail from Ebert: “Never seen it. I’ve ordered a DVD.”
This marks the only time in history I have actually seen something Ebert has not.
Have any of you seen it? I have an old VHS dub of it in the closet I think. Very unusual movie which has precious little to do with an American uncle. Rather, it’s a film about three people and the choices they make in love and life, and compares their behavior to that of lab rats. Kind of an evolutionary love story, in a way, with biologist Henri Laborit on hand to discuss the scenes as we watch them.
YouTube has a fascinating clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7AfY-ux7Ds
I’ve always thought that Woody Allen’s “Husbands and Wives” drew from the film, possibly, as it has a similar analytic tone.
Maybe Ebert will write an review which will revive some interest in it — or maybe not. It’s a rather bold film; the very narrative style risks ridicule, although I personally quite liked it.
Maybe Criterion can get involved somewhere along the line, too.
It’s also listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Best Films. Here’s Richard Corliss’ capsule review:
“We humans supposedly use only five percent of our brainpower. Filmmakers are similarly timid with the possibilities of the medium. Virtually all directors employ the visual vocabulary established 90 years ago by D.W. Griffith, and the presumption of realism: that those actors are these characters. Resnais, in a career spanning a half-century, is not always so constrained. His Last Year at Marienbad had the smart set guessing what was real and what was fantasy—and missing the correct answer that, on screen, everything is a fantasy, literally an optical illusion. Mon oncle d’Amérique, written by Jean Gruault, is a science lesson, given by the biologist Henri Laborit, that is made lucid and entertaining by illustrative skits featuring three characters (Roger-Pierre, Gérard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia) and a lab full of white mice. Laborit’s questions about the impact of behavioral codes in inhibiting man’s so-called free will dovetail elegantly with Resnais’s and Gruault’s mission to overthrow the codes of film behavior. It’s an exemplary experiment, and the highest form of movie fun.”