Wild Grass

Le grande old homme of French cinema returns with this odd little number. The 88-year-old director of classics like Hiroshima, Mon Amour and Last Year In Marienbad is in a quirky mood with Wild Grass but the results are mixed... And that's being kind.

In it's dream-like opening, Resnais introduces the audience to the main players through a rambling narration ('rambling' will crop up again and again in this review). Marguerite (Resnais regular Azéma), a dentist with a shock of red hair and whose face Resnais keeps hidden, buys a pair of shoes and subsequently gets her bag stolen. She doesn't report it immediately and her wallet is found by Georges (Dussollier), a middle-aged man with a dark past (and darker thoughts). Becoming increasingly obsessed with the identity of the woman, Georges writes her letters, leaves rambling messages on her phone late at night, and slashes her tyres. Despite all this, Marguerite can't help but become interested in her stalker.

Wild Grass is a frustrating film. Characters take an age to get around to saying that they want to say, with contrived distractions standing in the way of their goals. Yes, people procrastinate but the level of deferment on show here is quite irritating. In one sequence Georges returns the wallet to a police station where a loud party next door constantly interrupts his conversation with Amalric's cop. Georges then leaves without filling out the paperwork. Amalric runs out after him and convinces him to come back inside. Georges does. Then he goes home. The point of this protracted sequence is anyone's guess. The point of the film is anyone's guess too. The rambling (there it is again) story can't make up its mind what it wants to do.

The tone of what is story is here is wonky - the music suggests a light-hearted romp but that is in total contradiction to the dark narration of Dussollier's would-be killer Resnais sets out to confuse. Why dual narrations? Why would Marguerite would invite this disturbed man into her life? Why keep Marguerite's face hidden for so long and then bungle the reveal? Does Georges family know of his dark past? How does his wife feel about his new fixation? What is that ending all about? Maybe it has something to do with the line "after the cinema, nothing surprises us" and Resnais, to his credit, is doing his best to surprise. If so, he's trying too hard.