Tough Love
‘Pialat may well have provided the source code for the elliptical realism that’s become de rigueur for an entire subsequent generation (Desplechin, Denis, Assayas, Breillat, Cantet, Dumont, etc.).’
Cedric Kahn, director of ‘L’Ennui’ and ‘Roberto Succo’ also belongs in that list. It was a great source of pain to me in France that 3/4 of the fantastic DVDs on sale there (it was pissing down, I’ve done all the museums, and I like shopping) were unsubtitled. But no omission pained me more than Pialat: a whole gorgeous boxset, untold extras, all inaccessible to me — although the sheer physicality of the performances in his films tempts me to risk a silent viewing.
It’s obviously some sort of Academie Francais-inspired revenge for the influx of English into the language facilitated by Hollywood.
Now that American film culture is giving the maitre his due, is it too much to expect his canonization over here?
HKM