Maurice Pialat's remarkable second feature is an uncompromising study of the break-up of a relationship, based on his own autobiographical novel. (1972)
Screened as part of NZIFF 2006
We Won't Grow Old Together 1972
Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble
Pialat’s remarkable second feature is an uncompromising study of the break-up of a relationship, based on his own autobiographical novel. So scathing and unsparing is Pialat’s view of his male protagonist that David Thompson suggested in Sight & Sound that this might be “life re-edited with just the embarrassing and unpleasant bits left in”. Jean Yanne (a Pialat look-alike) was named Best Actor at Cannes in 1972 for his performance as Jean, a selfish and domineering filmmaker still living with his estranged wife, but involved for six years now with Catherine, a younger working-class woman. The disintegration of this long-term affair is charted in a series of potent and perceptive episodes. Painful recriminations alternate with tearful reconciliations and whatever feelings exist between Jean and Catherine are inevitably destroyed.
“This is an important feminist film by a male director… Considering Pialat’s connection to the film, it is a brutally honest self-analysis. Jean Yanne is superb as a loving and destructive man.” — Melissa Biggs, French Films