France,
1989, 93 min
Shown in 1990
CREDITS
- dir
-
John Lvoff
- prod
-
Eric Heumann, Stephane Soriat
- scr
-
John Lvoff, Jean-Phillippe Toussaint
- cam
-
Jean-Claude Larieu
- editor
-
Annick Rousset-Rouard
- cast
-
Tom Novembre, Gunilla Karlzen
- source
-
M.G.I., Michel Gue, 12 rue Blanche, 75009, Paris, France, FAX: 1-45-26-17-33
-
COMMENTS
John Lvoff attended the screening.
OTHER
Alienation, stasis and inaction are not especially ripe subjects for comedy, but John Lvoff's directorial debut, a masterful execution of deadpan understatement, wholly succeeds. La Salle de bain follows a brief period in the life of a man who believes movement brings us only closer to death and, to avoid this danger, spends most of his time safely in the bathroom, TV and library close by for easy access. The film's protagonist, played by French stage actor Tom Novembre whose uncanny resemblance to Buster Keaton only adds to the film's Keatonesque charm, does leave his sanctuary every now and then—to be with his pretty blond and much more active girlfriend Edmonsson, to put up with a couple of Polish artists hired as house painters or a boring assortment of friends—but life outside the loo only causes further isolation. He embarks on a trip to Venice, but prefers playing darts in his hotel room to exploring the city. It's yet another static experience that leads to frustation when Edmonsson arrives and (in the film's only dark moment) he gratuitously wounds her with a dart… but "reality" seems to finally, happily reappear when he returns to Paris. Shooting, in his words, in "white-and-black," Lvoff deftly handles dry, philosophical humor with a seasoned expertise.
—Brian Gordon
FACTOID #4
2006 New Italian Cinema tributee Marco Belocchio’s debut film Fists in the Pocket screened at the Tenth San Francisco International Film Festival in 1966.
