Awesome Movie

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Louis Coline tries to keep up with his demanding wife and an equally demanding boss. They both want something else of him. How to cope with this? I liked the theme of how work can have an immense influence on your life. Louis is under pressure and we see him trying to cope with it. How would you respond when at midnight your boss (Michel Piccoli) and his aid (Jean-Pierre Kalfon) are on your doorstep and seconds later they are in your kitchen baking an egg? Shaving naked in your bathroom the next morning? And your wife wants to leave in her nightgown in the middle of the night? I did not enjoy the film thoroughly, unfortunately. I waited for the magic to happen but it never came. The reason is, I guess, that I found the film just too regular. A regular story about a regular guy, living with other regular people, in a style of filming that is equally regular. It was visually not very enticing. I am not familiar with the work of Pierre Granier-Deferre, but my guess is it shall be mostly slow and observing.I wouldn't go as far as calling the film bad. It is a solid production after all. It also boasts a couple of decent actors, Gerard Lanvin in his early years being surprisingly sensitive; Nathalie Baye as his wife; and Michel Piccoli as his boss. But it was actually only Jean-Pierre Kalfon who was outstanding (he would've fitted greatly in The Wolf of Wall Street).On the other hand this observing style works fine when you watch the film as some sort of time machine, to have an honest view of life in 1981 (and not the punky kitsch version of these years the media has invented). As how it was for probably most people: working, family, eating, sleeping. Not as different as life nowadays.

An affair less strange than ominous. Upon confrontation with his new boss, whom he has awaited fearfully because of announcements of his rigor, a small employee gratefully accepts the role as a humble servant without realizing that his whole life is slowly transformed into a sort of "free slavery". He is so eager to participate in the system that he ceases to question any of the strange encounters he has with the boss and his obedient followers. His own life stops and is replace by his position as a puppet. In the end, when everything is gone, he is still incapable of refilling the gaps. A striking study on accommodation and the loss of self.

This film is shy, one of those you'll fall over on a sleepless night, on an obscure TV station. And you'll find yourself attracted by its awkward mood and characters (check Jean Pierre Kalfon's performance, amazing here). Truth is, "une étrange affaire" is an "étrange" masterpiece, and I'm not ashamed to say it could have been a Kubrick film in the way it depicts extremely accurately the relationship between a king and his court, and the behaviour of mind bent court followers and how this relationship can work today, in a democracy. Piccoli is at his best, so are Balmer and Kalfon (two very under used and rated french actors) and this is probably Lanvin's best flick (that's if you're a fan of the guy). The film is cruel, and shows how easily a man can get his mind twisted, be it by a ceo or out of a "big company" context, anyone standing on any upper level and how weak and cheap the ways to use are. On that sleepless night, try to stay awake, you won't regret it, even at 4.00 AM.

What if a man doesn't fit the role of being the centre of his loving wife's life but jumps instead to the opportunity of getting invaded and absorbed by his new boss who expects from him and two colleagues that they constitute a team without borders of privacy like one body and the boss as the ruling head?