Ìý Fans of Francois Ozon's recently released 5x2 should appreciate Errance, French writer/director Damien Odoul's tragic vision of a marriage in turmoil. Unfolding in the late 60s and early 70s, and split into three sections - the countryside, the seaside and the city - this powerfully acted film stars Benoît Magimel as an Algerian war veteran and Laetitia Casta as his long-suffering wife, whose stormy arguments are witnessed by their young son.
Errance beings with the shot of a man Jacques (Magimel) urinating by the side of a rural road, before he stumbles back into the vehicle and continues driving, with the car lurching from side-to-side. Then there's a cut to a hospital, where Lou (Casta) is experiencing the agony of childbirth, for which her husband is late. The whole emotional dynamic of the film is swiftly established in these scenes, alongside the picture's visceral sensibility.
"ODOUL SEEMS FASCINATED BY TROUBLED, BRUTISH MEN"
Jacques, a gambling and boozing philanderer, struggles to hold down a regular job and seems unable to modify his self-destructive behaviour. Despite her profound unhappiness, Lou is determined to preserve the relationship. When somebody asks, "Why do you stay with this loser?", she cannot answer.
As with his last film, the startling coming-of-age Le Souffle, Odoul seems fascinated and appalled by troubled, brutish men, and the supporting characters come and go with minimal explanation. That the director gives himself the cameo role of an avenging gunman in a tale loosely based on autobiographical events, provides an Oedipal charge to this deeply anguished film.
