IMDB的两篇评论

The untrustworthy narrator, 15 July 2008

Author: pstumpf from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

An exercise in duplicitous narration taken to its logical extreme. Nothing the protagonist says about himself or the past can be believed, including his identity: he introduces himself as "Jean Robin", then tells us that he is really "Boris Viasso", and relates the tale of his wartime comrade in the resistance, Jean Robin, who is first portrayed as a hero, then implied to be a traitor. Or was it Viasso himself who was the traitor? Or, since he seems unrecognized in the village, is he merely trying to insinuate himself into the household of three beautiful women: the widow, sister and maid of the late Robin? Robbe-Grillet plays his customary brilliant games with narrative and imagery. There are women in blindfolds, women bound with ropes; a broken glass; death by broken balustrade. All the characters wear contemporary clothing, even in "flashback" to the wartime past, when they interact with soldiers in WWII garb. Beautiful Czech locales - forests, a crumbling castle, a labyrinthine cavern - are filmed in sumptuous black-and-white by Igor Luthor. A memorable sequence of betrayal, with freeze-frames, featuring A R-G's wife, Catherine.

A provocative treat from this great and under-rated master of cinema.

Seen at BAM on July 14, 2008.

=====================================================
way below par, 17 October 2008

Author: jammasta-1 from one step beyond

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I saw this movie this summer, at a French movies festival centered on the French New Wave. Circumstances allowed me to compare this with another of Robbe-Grillet's films, Trans-Europ Express. While the latter was fairly interesting (as a story set up on-the-spot, with its author, his wife and a friend negotiating what should happen now when Trintignant and the others are already acting), this was pretty much a disaster. A lot of things which worked well in the other ARG movie are hit-and-miss here. There, the fictitious story allowed for a flat, easy read - it's all a trick, there's nothing worth considering. The story of Boris Varissa/Jean Robin, on the other hand, seems to urge the viewer to set up a huge critical apparatus - only to give him back nothing more than a set of more or less unrelated cuts. On a very theoretical plane, The Man Who Lies could be viewed as a very critical essay on the French collaboration during the war and/or on the falsifying effect produced by a memory that wishes to become something else. Varissa could be one of the bad, a traitor, and the movie a sort of dream-like vision of his - maybe a plain nightmare. However, if we dismiss this interpretation - there isn't too much left. As a study in narratology it's too long and boring. As a piece of surrealism, it's unconvincing and irrelevant. I guess what makes this movie less significant than Trans-Europ Express is the fact that while there being artsy-fartsy was actually part of the game, here it's irritating. One note, however: although I find The Man Who Lies to be a trifle less convincing than Trans-Europ Express, it *was* that much more inspiring. Still, Robbe-Grillet's movie-making is boredom-inducing.