Alain Robbe-Grillet's The Man Who Lies (1968) is very high on my "films with artistic merit" list. This film is truly worthy of the label Cinematic Art. This is the fist Robbe-Grillet film that I've viewed and it certainly makes me want to view many more.
The generally negative reviews that this film has gotten is due to the fact that all of the available English language reviews that are available seem to have been written by people whose brains have been warped by big studio Hollywood films. This film can only be understood in the context of the Continental European filmmaking tradition, which generally opts for artistic merit over commercial viability.
The most obvious and coherent interpretation of this film is that it portrays a severe form of war induced PTSD that has led to a psychotic break, and an ensuing psychotic hallucination in the main character, Boris. This film, in turn, is a detailed account of that angst filled, psychotic, war horror hallucination. Like all instances of war induced, or battle induced, PTSD, the sufferer keeps reliving the horrific scenes of war that he has experienced. This would explain why at many points in the film, including the very beginning, we see Nazi soldiers in action, while the main thrust of the film clearly takes place AFTER the end of WWII.
As such, this film fits squarely within the boundaries of all other WWII films that were produced in Continental Europe. I have yet to view one such film that doesn't radiate total hopeless, total despair, and the war eradicating all meaning in life, in those people who experienced the horrors of WWII first hand. Even as late as 1991, Lars von Trier's Europa broadcasts this same emotional and visceral message about the horrors of WWII in Continental Europe: total hopeless, total despair, and the war eradicating all meaning in life. This genre of Continental European films about WWII is so consistent, over decades, and across national boundaries, that it truly amazes me. As such, The Man Who Lies fits squarely in that genre, although in a cinematic style that as radical as it is artistic.
From this "psychotic" interpretation of this film, its title is rather paradoxical insofar as it would seem to lead the viewer astray even before he views the film. Perhaps this was the filmmaker's way of deceptively "setting up" the viewer for a rational interpretation of a film that is clearly not rational at all. As such, the seemingly rational explanation of the film embedded in its title would "suck in" and entrap the viewer to seek a rational understanding of a film that clearly has no rational explanation, perhaps inducing some of the same hopelessness, despair, angst, and confusion experienced throughout the film by the protagonist Boris.
This whole film seems to be geared to reinforcing this PTSD. psychotic, hallucinatory theme. This film has a lot of well conceived and well placed, although radical, symbolic imagery. This film has a great deal of radical editing, including interspersing WWII scenes into the main storyline, which obviously is set after the end of WWII. The radical cinematography, with its strange camera angles, its strange camera movements, and an effective blend of close up shots of faces, and inanimate object and locations, with long range shots, often in the same scene, also reinforces the psychotic PTSD theme of this film. The seeming anonymity of Boris when he enters the town is downright spooky, as are the shots of the empty streets in the town. The "castle" in which reside Jan Robin's widow, sister, maid, father, and estate caretaker looks like something out of a well conceive horror movie, with strategically placed cobwebs, otherwise vacant rooms filled with art work and piles of furniture, and a grimy, isolated tower replete with a set of large bells. The sexual encounters that Boris has with the widow, the sister, and the maid are somewhat bizarre, although effectively so, in that they show a man who is a literal stranger to everyone else in film, taking sexual liberties with women that he doesn't know, women who are closely related to the war resistance leader with whom he says he's associated. The continuously changing war stories from Boris, can be just as easily interpreted as the confused rambling of a psychotic mind, as they can be "lies".
This is an excellent film with very high artistic merit. It is very engaging, and compelling, with a well thought out, well executed, and very detailed screenplay. The key to appreciating this film, in my opinion, is not at all to attempt to understand it in rational terms whatsoever, but to appreciate it as a an artistic attempt to convey the horrors of WWII, and its effects on one man. Therefore, appreciation of this film resides at the emotional and visceral level of the viewer, and decidedly not in his mind.
20 Stars !!! 20 Stars !!! 20 Stars !!!
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