L'ENNUI (1988)

Cast

Plot

Martin is a philosophy professor tired of his job, his life and, bothered by his ex-wife's general contentment, he has 'given up love' and taken to his car. On one voyeuristic drive around Paris he sees something spark between a girl and an older man, drawn in, he tracks the man to a bar and, later, to his studio, only to find him dead of a heart attack and the girl, Cécilia, whom Martin interrogates, accosts and couples with, a dance he performs as an increasingly frantic ritual over the following months. She is young, enigmatic and unfettered by intellectualism and he is compelled and confounded by her docile, casual availability and calm impenetrability. While Martin claims boredom, his discovery that their relationship is not monogamous threatens to turn his mid-life crisis into a lifelong disaster. L'Ennui is an absorbing and character rich story, with a refreshingly parched wit and genuine eroticism.