Drive My Car

De temps en temps, j’essaie de m’enrichir avec le cinéma asiatique, j’ai donc décidé de regarder ce film parce que j’en avais beaucoup entendu parler. Il s’agit d’un récit très lent, délicat et inquiétant. Il faut attendre plus longtemps pour découvrir le passé trouble des personnages, mais on ne peut pas être déçu. Cette histoire parle de fuite, de réconciliation, de pardon et d’espoir. Les performances des acteurs sont très émouvantes et, malgré la durée très longue du film, elles ont réussi à maintenir mon attention jusqu’à la fin. (21/02/2023)

Le film est centré sur l'entente inattendue qui se développe entre un metteur en scène de théâtre d'âge moyen et une jeune chauffeuse privée qui pourrait être sa fille et qui lui a été assignée contre son gré par la compagnie de théâtre. Grâce à l'établissement d'une confiance mutuelle, ils peuvent confier l'un à l'autre leurs traumatismes et leurs secrets, qui font partie d'une histoire complexe et multicouche, traitant entre autres des relations amoureuses et des douleurs causées par la perte d'un proche ou d'une personne aimée. Tout cela se déroule sur fond de répétitions « d'Oncle Vania » de Tchekhov dans une version multilingue (y compris la langue des signes coréenne), les dialogues de cette pièce étant souvent présents dans d'autres parties du film. Malgré le fait que l'intrigue ne se mette vraiment en place qu'après plus de 40 minutes (lorsque le générique d'ouverture apparaît enfin), la durée du film n'est en aucun cas un obstacle. De plus, le film est superbement écrit et réalisé du début à la fin, se distinguant non seulement par l'importance accordée à la communication formelle entre les personnages, mais aussi par une série de scènes inventives et fascinantes, ainsi que par l'intégration de plusieurs micro-récits oniriques. (29/08/2021)

No, I will not throw out superlatives and I will remain significantly reserved in my evaluation. Some directors successfully fit the adaptation of a several hundred-page novel into a two-hour blockbuster, but Hamaguchi managed to stretch the adaptation of a short story one-tenth of the size into three hours. It took me three tries to watch the film and that's not a good sign. I constantly felt like I was watching a snail on vacation, not in a rush to get anywhere. The film drags on and even though it introduces interesting motifs regarding the artistic creative process and the psychological aspect of coping with the departure of a loved one, it really doesn't deserve a higher rating. Overall impression: 55%. I am horrified at the thought of how long the adaptation of a thick tome of a 19th-century Russian classic would stretch in the hands of this director. (19/03/2024)

The eponymous short story that is the source material is less than forty pages long, and apart from a few micro-paragraphs, it makes do with dialogue "about nothing" between two characters in a car (a yellow one!) during night drives through Tokyo. The adaptation is three hours long, taking barely a few points of contact from the original and incorporating motifs from other stories in the "Men Without Women" collection (which is not one of Haruki's more accomplished ones). It takes its cues from his non-magical-realist work (so it doesn't threaten Murakami's bingo), and it's all taken up by Hamaguchi in his own untamed way. The opening third in particular is, however, shamefully literal; what the source material manages to say in a couple of sentences here is shown at length, and not much of it. Once the plot shifts in time, however, it at least begins to work on multiple levels (knowledge of Chekhov's “Uncle Vanya” is expected for full enjoyment), where everything says much more. It looks at the creative process, how to communicate through art, what we want to know but are afraid to ask, various forms of (un)happy relationships, about men and women, about grief, about theatre, "why him, what does he have that I don't", about supposed guilt, about femmes fatales, about the gradual opening to others and to oneself… Well, there's not much that Hamaguchi has left unbitten, and he can basically chew it all. The running time is enormous, but except for the cursed opening prologue, not unreasonable. However, despite all its qualities (a perfectly hit melancholic note), it's still hard not to pigeonhole it as "genteel sophisticated boredom", because it's more interesting "how the filmmakers work with it and deal with it all" than "what it is like". (24/03/2022)

Anyone who has read anything by Haruki Murakami, even just a single book, will soon know how it is. You delve deep into art, sex, mental health, and feelings of abandonment – and you keep going back there almost constantly. Unfortunately, in the remaining time, there is a multilingual attempt at Russian classics, which are indeed related to the main character's many problems, but never justify why the sufficiently understandable quest for one's own paths takes three hours. Luckily, Hidetoshi Nishijima appears in the main role, and his intense and focused-every-second or even broken gaze carries the viewer from one car to another without feeling the passage of time. (28/03/2022)