Not Here To Be Loved

Star Review

Like some kind of Gallic Prufrock (‘there will be time to wonder ‘Do I dare?’ and ‘Do I dare?’’), Patrick Chesnais’ Jean-Claude – arguably the lynchpin around which Stéphane Brizé’s mordant comedy of manners revolves – is an ageing, lonely bailiff who spends his days delivering eviction notices and his weekends visiting his curmudgeonly father in a nursing home. Just about the only excitement he gets is peering through the drapes from his office and into the dance class opposite. Apparently this Prufrock does dare however, because he signs up for lessons and meets Anne Consigny’s Françoise, a young woman who feels neglected at home thanks to her writer-fiance’s obsession with his novel. Like Daniel Auteuil in Un Coeur en Hiver or Jean Rochefort in L’Enfer, this is very much a tale of a buttoned-down man learning how to open up (albeit shot in the muted tones of something like Laurence Cantet’s Human Resources) but, as Jean-Claude and Françoise weather the storms of their burgeoning affection, a tender if downcast gem is born. Well worth a watch!

Peter Wild on 8th October 2007

View all 54 of Peter Wild’s reviews

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Film Description

Aka Je ne suis pas là pour être aimé. Divorcee Jean-Claude is 51 leads a mournful life, not helped by his job of announcing evictions and property seizure. Sunday afternoons are spent in the retirement home with his sour old father. Could a glimmer of hope in his life arrive from the dance studio across from his office? Jean-Claude enrolls and meets Francoise - who is about to be married.

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Film Details

Cast

Patrick Chesnais, Anne Consigny, Georges Wilson

Technical Details