Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Best movie ever!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Andre Techine's 2011 film "Impardonnable" was shown recently on a cable channel. The idea of a new production by M. Techine, as well as the people involved in it, was a deciding factor for our interest in watching it. Sadly to say, the film is a disappointment, compared with better, more accomplished films by the director. The main problem is one of credibility. The premise sounds false from start to finish, but we went along hoping for the best, a promise that alas, did not pan out as expected. Supposedly, this picture is based on a novel by Philippe Dijan, which of course, we have not read. M. Techine and his collaborator, Mehdi Ben Attia, have tried injecting some life into the proceedings, with mixed results.The excellent Andre Dussolier, seen as Francis, has the unfortunate task to give life to the blocked crime writer who comes to Venice to get out of his funk. Instead, he gets involved into an affair with a younger woman, Judith, played with multi talented Carole Bouquet. Their love affair does not make much sense, and since doubt enters his mind, the writer engages Anna Maria, a private investigator, a woman who was Judith's lover to look into her imaginary affair that has been bothering Francis. Andre Dussolier had the difficult assignment of baring it all in a couple of nude scenes, where a much modest Carole Bouquet keeps on her clothes. One can hope the next film by Andre Techine will find him in a different frame of mind.

This French drama was directed and co-written by one of the stalwarts of the French film industry Andre Techine. It has an all-star cast which includes the veteran award winning actor Andre Dussollier and the very talented Carole Bouquet.At the outset, Dussollier portraying Francis a famous crime novelist, has come to Venice to rest and hopefully write his next book. He meets Bouquet, the real estate agent showing him possible living accommodations, and they seem to hit it off. This takes place amidst the spectacular cinematography of the outlying waterways of Venice, where both ocean liners and small boats co-exist.He says he will rent the very expensive home she's showing him if she will move in with him. After thinking about it and consulting with a friend, and former lover of hers (portrayed by Adriana Asti), she accepts.However, we quickly learn this idyllic setting in the early parts of the film will not last long. As various characters come in and out of the movie, I found almost all of them to be very unlikeable and some of their actions to be actually despicable.For example, when Dussollier's daughter (portrayed by Melanie Thierry) comes to visit him and Bouquet, who are now married, she ends up completely disappearing and abandoning her young daughter and husband. When Dussollier hires Asti, a former Private Investigator, to find her Asti discovers she has run off with a drug dealer. Later, Thierry ends up sending her father a porno tape of her and the drug dealer just to infuriate him, as apparently they've had a long history of conflicts.This is just one example of many. The acting and the dialogue are strong and as mentioned the cinematography is wonderful, but I found by the end of the movie I really didn't care what happened to any of these people.Also, a note of caution: There is a scene in the film where a dog is suddenly murdered and I found this to be brutal to have witnessed.In summary, this French drama left me as cold and unfeeling as the people in it.

Nothing new at the French Horizon. Former player/writer with a writers block passes his time spying on his wife, his ex wife and his daughter. Meanwhile 'shocking' scenes are intended with a little bit of homosexuality for every character, un peu de violence of course, and let's not forget unsettling parent/child dialogues you can always count on. Maybe this is all needed to fill up the rather lengthy runtime.I seriously can not stand another French dragon like this. What is their obsession with homosexuality, sex and sour relationships in their cinema. For me this is the last one. It probably is a hit at the festivals but I can do without it.

Andre Techine is something of a poster boy on the Academic-Pseud circuit and clearly they're going to love this in the Senior Common Room and the BFI Boardroom - expect an article in Sight and Sound any time soon. Clearly it has something very profound to say about something. What exactly? You tell me, naval lint. Very possibly. A middle-aged writer is looking for a quiet retreat; a female estate agent slightly younger (in real life Carole Bouquet is eleven years younger than Andre Dussollier) gives him details of a house a short distance from Venice. He says he'll take it providing she will go and live there with him. She agrees. I know but this is Techine, the darling of the pseuds. His married daughter, who has left her husband to take up with a deadbeat, violent druggie, leaving her own daughter with grandfather, subsequently drops out of sight. The estate agent, who swings both ways, recommends a former lover, ex-private detective, to search for the daughter. The tec is reluctant because she is worried about her low-life son, due out of prison imminently. There's more but do you honestly CARE. Naturally, being Techine he shoots the film on location around Venice but does nothing so crass as offer any 'touristy' scenes of Venice, best leave that to the real filmmakers like David Lean and Visconti, pseuds are above pandering to entertainment. I've given it five out of ten for Dussollier and Bouquet, who deserve something for enduring this drek. Luckily Dussollier went straight from this to work with a real artiste, Ann Fontaine and significantly the film they made together is called My Worst Nightmare.