Jardins en Automne

Jardins en automne - BA - FR
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What is one left in life, without an ambition to follow, expensive dresses to wear or a grand house with lots of servants around ?

Friends ? Flirts ? Perhaps a little drink accompanied by some beautiful music ? Thus, the simple pleasures in life ? You may find it absurd, in a total materialistic world, where we are dragged to our jobs, forgetting when the last time we had a nice drink and laughter with our friends, however, Vincent, the main character of Jardins en Automne, certainly does remember what it was to live lighthearted, accompanied by Boccherini's Minuet as the background music.

Vincent, a minister - of probably agriculture, it is not exactly mentioned - who looks tired of his responsibilities and mostly ridiculous political obligations, is forced to resign one day, because of immense protests against his regulations, by the people-public he has long forgotten the existence of. Following that, he is left by his wife, who certainly likes an expensive living. All alone, even without a place to live and penniless, he goes back to live in his family apartment, occupied now by Africans. Little by little, he finds his old friends and his old flames, makes new flames and takes back his apartment. All the people we see around him are living these lives where there is non-stop drinking, painting and thus, pure joy. There are a few worrying occasions from time to time, mais c'est pas grave.

Iosseliani, the Georgian-French director who also has a role himself as Arnaud, one of Vincent's friends, shows us the life we think as if lasting forever may turn upside down all of a sudden, and one should not take it all too serious. Iosseliani may have a Georgian origin, but a long time spent in France certainly influenced him and he has absorbed all there is to French culture. The movie is at first a little hard to watch, as the characters are not introduced to us in details and the dialogues do not give much of a hint. It is as if the director has been only watching those lives, just as we do, nonetheless, after 10-20 minutes, you calm down and start enjoying the scenes, more and more as Vincent calms down himself. Surprisingly, Vincent's aging mother is played by the actor Michel Piccoli and he does a brilliantly funny job as Marie. There is an endless drinking going on, so much that you may get drunk just watching it, and yet, our good old characters, they all amazingly endure that (I, personally, am not sure if I could).

Iosseliani has not made any movies after Jardins en Automne, since 2006, and this last movie of him was only shown in a few festivals in the world. I do recommend it to be seen and to be purely enjoyed, after all, even if we envy them, it is most certain that many of us would not dare to leave those that make today's world running. Yet, from time to time, just sit back and take a glass of wine, while listening to Boccherini...