Oshima, Third Encounter, Max Mon Amour

Max Mon Amour, the movie made by Oshima in 1986: this time it's Buñuel who's coming in mind (and Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie). Anyway, the screenwriter is the same (Jean-Claude Carrière) for both movies.

But it's more than that. After watching Max Mon Amour I realized suddenly what Buñuel meant in the creative world of Oshima: it's like the famous we all came out of Gogol's Overcoat; here the overcoat was Le Chien Andalou. All Oshima is there, in the Chien Andalou, his attitude toward classics, towards cinema, himself, us, towards the system, all.

This time, in Max Mon Amour, he is unexpectedly mild. A farce that becomes grotesque and remains mild and just funny, in the same time. A great balance.

A family of the upper class. Monsieur (Anthony Higgins) is a British diplomat, in service at Paris. Madame (Charlotte Rampling) is a very cool French. Each one has a long-term extramarital affair. The lovers are so to speak part of the family; they attend the festive dinners, among the other friends.

Only, for some time Madame has a peculiar behavior. Each day she disappears for a couple of hours. A detective (Pierre Étaix) is hired and finds some data: Madame rented a small apartment where she goes daily. Monsieur gets the address and finds her nude, with an unknown partner in the bed. Could it be sex? Monsieur asks, Madame refuses to give explicit details.

Monsieur invites Madame to bring the new partner home, so it would be better for all. The question remains, whether there is sex or not, but eventually Monsieur realizes that this is irrelevant: Madame loves him anyway. The perfect ménage a trois.

A small detail: the new partner is a chimpanzee.





(Japanese New Wave)