A Private Affair (2002) User Reviews (8)

Good writing, good directing, very good editing but...

[vostf · 7/10 · 29 April 2002]

I didn't expect such a level of directing ease in that movie after I had seen its cheesy trailer twice. The lines are also very sharp as is the story but...

________Spoiler warninG________

It's a real pleasure to follow the line of this investigation although it's all mixed with the private affairs of François Manéri. You get to seize how meaningless his life has become. He is never really at a loss as usual Noir heroes: the quest for a clue or for what his investigation is about dwells absurdly on all his life. As Clarisse tells him he seems to ask for answers he doesn't care about. That's the way things are going and even before you get to wonder where they go it's the end, brought here in a very low-key style. Like a long fade-out on François'head with just the truth here to deride him, to say how much he has been passing by important things without noticing any. Or rather things have just passed him by.

Well, it's consistent for it's more about the main character than about the truth (the girl he is paid to look for) but it's not sufficient for the average guy in his seat. It's not punchy enough an ending, perhaps because Clarisse is not mysterious enough and when she just come to bring in the solution you need not to believe it, you need not to understand it, it's the end and so it is.

Ok that is not the kind of artificial Machiavellian plan which we should be told only in the end if we have been good. I shouldn't complain. But it was not easy to end a movie about a character who's lost the idea of rhythm in his life (thus I mention here that the editing of the dialogue on his tape over his actual life is one of the major achievements). Something must happen in the end because we are to leave our seats and not just going on with François'dreadful life. It's a major flaw since Une affaire privée would have been great if only they had tried to pull it tight. Perhaps they wanted to avoid to have François see clearly by himself, perhaps they didn't want to eye up on Vertigo. Personally I would have tried to have him find something she leaves for him to know and he doesn't want to know and he is arrested and we see the policemen saying hello to the real Clarisse and her friend.

Too bad but many good things to take away.

A muddled affair.

[dbdumonteil · 7/10 · 22 November 2004]

Despite its clichés -the private is obligatory a divorced man,the plaster on his nose directly comes from Polanski's "Chinatown" ,"une affaire privée" has intellect ,atmosphere and even restrained emotion (Aurore Clement's two scenes are moving ) going for it.The first hour is even intriguing,sometimes recalling some famous works such as "Laura" and more obscure flicks such as "Sylvia" .The director,who is also the writer multiplies the characters at such a speed it's very hard to catch up with the plot,and in the second part,everything seems to fall apart ,well before the implausible de rigueur final unexpected twist (we think here of David Fincher's "the game" and "fight club").But the final cast and credits ,for once is worth a watch :it displays all the characters one by one,with a strange smile on their face ,almost disturbing,as if they were telling us "You' ve been had".Despite of its flaws,"une affaire privée" deserves to be watched.

Moody, murky, sexy detective story - and a glimpse into the life of the detective

[Chris_Docker · 6/10 · 20 August 2002]

A moody, sexy French detective story with more than a passing nod to the film noir tradition. We enter the strange murky world of private detective François Manéri as he tries to find out what happened to a missing girl. There's a lot to keep track of, and lots of false leads, but the overall achievement is in creating the story through the eyes of the main character, with all his flaws, than in a cut and paste murder mystery. I found the European very natural depiction of the skilled but all too human detective captivating, in stark contrast to the more formulaic characters of American detective stories.

Maneri's no Philip Marlowe...

[bob998 · 7/10 · 26 April 2018]

...but his sad sack adventures across Paris looking for a girl who's been missing for six months can be fairly engrossing at times. My favourite actors show up here: Aurore Clement and Niels Arestrup as Rachel's parents, Bruno Todeschini as a physiotherapist who knew her, Jeanne Balibar and Laurent Grevill as Maneri's ex wife and her new husband, Clovis Cornillac as the owner of the Apolus sex club (and what a fun place it looks too). Thierry Lhermitte will always be the Club Med host from Les Bronzes for me, but he does a pretty good job playing the run down private eye... that's a bad smoking habit he's got. Then there is the always-alluring Marion Cotillard, who needs to do very little to draw viewers into a scene. All in all, it's too long and has too many characters, but it's a lot of fun to watch.

Great sense of place - not as grim as it would like to be

[frontload · 8/10 · 8 May 2002]

This is a good Paris film which successfully inserts the viewer into the life of a ageing Parisian lothario and private dick, because let's face it, we've all known one.

Thierry Lhermitte, more a bland celebrity than an actor, although the French would consider him a comedian, despite evidence to the contrary in, say, Le Placard, is captivating as the detective.

The plot is pretty complicated, especially if you are following it in French without subtitles, and serves exclusively to move Lhermitte around and give us a glimpse of his creased, aloof character in a variety of locations including local colour (Paris buses on the outskirts of the city, a suburban street) and exotica (a swingers club, prompting a great gag).

What is pleasing about the film is it is utterly unafraid to trot through the entire canon of private eye cliches without flinching and without becoming laughable. Lhermitte is divorced, lives in a crummy, poorly-lit flat and lives on canned food, principally beer, but remains thin. His wife is remarried, to a balding ex-friend who is good at sex. He is attractive to much younger women, naturally, and has a strong but uneven moral stance regarding others. He has clearly seen Chinatown so manages to acquire injuries requiring unsightly bandages early on. He has an unquestionably loyal older sidekick with an irritating dog! His car is rubbish! Nobody in the film opens their curtains at home or puts on moer than one 20w lamp, despite risking injury from collision with the heavy bits of furniture the French like so much.

Lhermitte, and everyone in the film chainsmokes, save the dog, probably because it is illegal to make dogs smoke. Every his apartment appears there are more and more cartons of cigarettes on every surface, even in the fridge.

This is a very enjoyable shaggy dog story, which like all s.d.s. is heavy on atmosphere and light on delivery.

rhythm and blues

[numero6 · 10/10 · 22 April 2002]

The atmosphere of the movie is amazing, the colors and the omnipresent music both stress the gloom and cynicism of the depicted world.

Disillusionment, Lust, Strangeness, succesfully put together in an unusual private investigation.

Here is the French version of Philip Marlowe.

[rednick · 9/10 · 8 May 2002]

Ana amazing atmosphere, made of small details and uncommon actors. The story is not, in my mind, the real point of the film but a way to enter in a PI's life for a week. A must see if you're fond of hard-boil lunatic guys !

"I never forget a face,even battered ones."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 8/10 · 18 November 2017]

September 2016:

Searching for movies online that a family friend was after,I got told about a Neo-Noir he had been interested in seeing for years, that was an early credit for Marion Cotillard. Checking various sites,the only think I could find was a French DVD,with no English Subtitles.

October 2017:

Whilst getting to place an order with a DVD seller,I decided to have another go at finding the movie,and stumbled on a DVD with English Subtitles…Only on Amazon Canada. Hoping to get the flick right away,I found no seller who would send it to the UK. Mentioning this in passing to the DVD seller,I was happily caught by surprise,when they said that they could order it from Canada,and then send it to me, (shame the DVD could not claim for flyer miles!)which led to me at last discovering the private affair.

The plot:

After being missing for over six months, Rachel Siprien's mum hires private detective François Manéri as a last roll of the dice in finding her daughter. Learning from the cops that they have hardly any clues over what has happened to her, Manéri begins visiting the clubs she went to and the friends Siprien,which leads to two thugs breaking his knuckles,and telling Manéri to stop checking Siprien's friends list. Catching the eye of Siprien's friend Clarisse Entoven, (who he starts sleeping with) Manéri opens the box to Siprien's private affairs.

View on the film:

Linking Manéri and Siprien together,the alluring Marion Cotillard (who appears naked a number of times) gives a excellent performance as Entoven, whose free-spirit personality allows Cotillard to give the title a mischievous Femme Fatale glint in the eye. Given the challenge of holding the big twist together, Cotillard does incredibly well in one of her first film credits of bringing the revelation across smoothly, via calmly giving Entoven's free-spirit nature a frosty sting. Rolling Manéri into the case looking like a total mess, Thierry Lhermitte gives a great, rugged performance as Film Noir loner Manéri.

Unwrapping the hidden seedy underbelly of the city, Lhermitte strikes Manéri with a grit that bleeds out in every attempt made to stop him,as he tightens his focus on finding Spirien,whilst allowing his attention to drift away,as Manéri becomes more entangled with Entoven. Keeping the private affairs of Entoven and her family closely guarded,the screenplay by writer/director Guillaume Nicloux tugs at the anxieties of Manéri, which are laid to bare in wonderfully odd sex dungeons and the clipped mutterings Manéri catches from each family member.

Shooting an arrow into Manéri's view on the case, Nicloux cuts a deeply cynical wound into Manéri with a crystallising ending,that sends Manéri off to drive back into his Neo-Noir pessimism. Cracking Manéri's hands against the red lights of the city, director Guillaume Nicloux & cinematographer Olivier Cocaul rub up a stylised Neo-Noir covered in grime, as Nicloux covers Manéri's investigation with saturated green,blue and yellow tints,that reflect the murky details Manéri uncovers of a private affair.