The Singer

Just been to see The Singer, a new French film starring Gerard Depardieu. I've always liked Depardieu as an actor, and in this, he's very much the film's heart and soul. he plays an ageing, overweight chanteur who makes an unostentatious living playing provincial dancehalls. He gives a nicely unselfish and self-deprecating performance and there's no sign of botox or any other cosmetic enhancements - always a major plus for me. I enjoyed enormously the way he mocks his size - 'I am the Massif Central'. He admits to hair dye, and it's a lovely touch to show him as perfectly content playing modest casinos, dancehalls, spas and other similarly unfashionable locations, and refusing to go on stage in a huge auditorium when given a chance to go on to bigger and better things.

He's utterly convincing throughout - he's not washed up, just content with his life. The key, I think is at the end, when he's sitting alone in his dressing room, singing to himself, and you suspect, for himself. In the hands of a lesser actor, the character could have been an caricature but Depardieu gives him a good-natured dignity, and what's so impressive is that the film respects all its characters and in the hands of a lesser director it would have been easy to poke fun at everyone. The film depicts ordinary, provincial, middlebrow life, the sort of scenario that British directors, especially, are often fond of sending up. Yes, the songs are cheesy and sentimental, but somehow they never come across as corny, and everyone seems to be having a good time, joining in with ancient dance routines such as the Madison.
Depardieu never makes us feel sorry for him, and I liked the ending very much. he says goodbye to the young woman with whom he's had a one-night stand. with a handshake, she leaves, and then returns. They embrace, but we never know if they'll rekindle their liaison, or whether she's just showing affection for him. The whole scene is shot behind glass doors, at a distance. I like open-ended endings, and althhough on the face of it the film is unresolved, it feels ulitmately optimistic
I liked this quote from the review in the Independent - 'it's an exceptionally astute anatomy of corniness, of the way it keeps people afloat through mundane, disappointing lives'. That, for me, sums it up beautifully. It's a lovely, quiet film that, although modest, ranks as one of Depardieu's best.