“Les herbes folles”
Starring: Sabine Azema, Andre Dussollier, Emmanuelle Devos, Anne Consigny, and Mathieu Amalric
Directed by: Alain Resnais
MPAA Rating: PG for some thematic material, language and brief smoking.
Genre: Art/Foreign, Drama, French with English Subs
Running time: 1 hr. 53 min.
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics
By John Delia
This is a quirky tale of stalking and romance that to me really didn’t come off the screen that well. It’s called Wild Grass and the film may become my choice for the dullest foreign film of the year. Droll acting, lackluster direction and a limp camera turn what could have been a good script into French onion soup without the cheese.
The story starts out on the right track with a thief stealing Marguerite’s (Sabine Azema) purse taking the money and discarding the wallet in a parking garage by Georges (Andre Dussollier) car. Georges finds the wallet and turns it into the police. Tormented by not knowing what Marguerite is like he starts stalking her. When she starts to become afraid things take an unromantic nosedive.
The acting here is really not very good at all and with the subtitles flying by the film becomes even more unbearable. There is not one iota of chemistry between the characters and director Alain Resnais fails to provide his audience with any ‘realistic’
story at all. I’m sure there is some sort of French characterization that I am not able to grasp as Resnais has directed twenty-five films since his first in 1953 leading me to believe that this must be experimental.
There isn’t much more I can say about Wild Grass other than see it at your own risk. The film is rated PG for some thematic material, language and brief smoking.
FINAL ANALYSIS: Only see it if you want to waste some time: (1 of 5)