Product Description

Rare is the film in movie-history that can announce the entire movement of its 'plot' with its title alone. But Pialat's second feature, Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble [We Won't Grow Old Together] does exactly that, encapsulating all the turmoil, and the final end-point, of a couple who among themselves once made a commitment -- and in living together will come to make another one yet. Jean (Jean Yanne, of Godard's Weekend) and Catherine (Marlène Jobert, of Godard's Masculin Féminin) are the couple whose every move charts an advancement deeper into an emotional warzone. Theirs is the classic and the tragic case of an emotional abuse centred around a perplexing, but powerful, interdependency. At last the point arrives that determines the relationship, with all its weekend holidays, its apologies and submissions, can go no further -- and, in a final shot of genius, Pialat discloses all the ways in which the future might be at once liberated, and enslaved, by the past. Based on a novel by Pialat himself, and on the trauma of his own personal life in the years leading up to the film, Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble was a smash-hit at the time of its release -- and yet is arguably one of the most upsetting films ever made. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Pialat's second feature masterpiece, accompanied with an array of supplements, for the first time on DVD in the UK. As part of the ongoing Masters of Cinema Series releases by Maurice Pialat, the DVD of Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble is released on 24 August 2009. ******** Special Edition Including: * La Camargue (1966) - A short 6-minute essay-documentary by Maurice Pialat on the region in which much of the action of Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble unfolds. * A 19-minute 2003 video interview with star Marlène Jobert about the film, conducted by Serge Toubiana (former editor-in-chief of Cahiers du cinéma and director of the Cinémathèque Française). * A 5-minute excerpt from the 1972 "Pour le cinéma: Spécial Cannes", featuring interviews with Jean Yanne and Maurice Pialat, both at Cannes, and two scenes deleted from the final film. * An 8-minute excerpt from the 1972 program "Vive le cinéma", featuring François Truffaut in conversation about both Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble and Pialat's earlier L'Enfance-nue, and including two unedited printed takes from the main feature. * A 12-minute excerpt from another 1972 installment of "Vive le cinéma", featuring Maurice Pialat in conversation about the film. * Original trailer for the film, and trailers for the six other Maurice Pialat features available from The Masters of Cinema Series. * A lengthy booklet with a new essay by critic, publisher, and former Cahiers du cinéma editor-in-chief Emmanual Burdeau, and newly translated interviews with Maurice Pialat.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14167 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-08-24
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Dolby, PAL
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Synopsis
Maurice Pialat's powerful romantic drama examines the final period of a long and ultimately unhappy affair. Jean (Jean Yanne) is an unpleasant, domineering man. Though he still lives with his wife, their marriage has been over for a long time. For six years, Jean has had an affair with the much-younger Catherine (Marlene Jobert). The dynamic of their relationship is moving it toward disintegration also, but Catherine resists it. Scenes of alternating recriminations and reconciliations unveil the anatomy of their breakup.

Customer Reviews

Very impressive movie...
For the time when the movies was produced, it must be a shocking movie.
The plot is about the separation of a love couple (a married man and his much younger girlfriend). The actors do a very well job, and sometimes its really painful to see that it is not possible for them to find to each other. It seems the love between them is gone. They are not able to talk to each other in a normal way. And at the end they break up.
However, its a great movie and worth to take a look.

Obsession
This is a very well observed film based on the director's own life; a sobering thought as he seems to have identified the weaknesses of both characters, presumably without being able to address them. The Anti-Hero is an abusive personality hooked up to a much younger woman while still living with his wife (a deracinated but caring performance). He needs her, but is afraid of that need and flails helplessly between a number of diastrous and inconsistent strategies to retain her (abusing her looks and intelligence, claiming he no longer cares, being jealous, being violent, being romantic)and in some cases repeating the same mixture several times just as ineffectively. The anti-heroine wants rid of him but only sometimes; she still wants him as a lover at one stage, then as a friend and then as nothing. The whole thing is very intimate and very sad, yet not that unrecognisable. I think the most interesting point to consider is when she finally decides it is finished; one can debate this for some time (though I have my firm view on the matter). If it is true that every relationship there is one who loves and one who is loved in this case the role seems to pass between the two central players, but always just at the wrong moment. A very painful film.

One thing that I missed was the age of the female lead. It was clear from the interviews that she was supposed to be much younger than the male lead, but Jobert was over thirty when the film was made (indeed her film mother looks like an older sister) which makes her ingenue behaviour appear slightly odd.