In the sentimental drama, the most numerous category, jealousy and manipulation of feelings dominate. This is true among couples married to adulterers: THE WEEPING WOMAN (1979), THE PIRATE (1984), THE TEMPTATION OF ISABELLE (1985), COMEDY (1987), THE REVENGE OF A WOMAN (1990), A MAN OVERBOARD (1993), FROM THE HEART (1994), TOO (LITTLE) LOVE (1997). This is also true for romantic relationships at school, whether undertaken by young peolle -- THE LOVE (187), LOVE (1992), DOWNRIGHT WEST (2001), RAJA (2003), or the relationship of someone older -- MONSIEUR ABEL (1983). Chamber dramas set in hotel rooms are the major device of this genre in Doillon's work.
The dramas of adolescents can be distinguished from the sentimental dramas by the fact that the love relationship is at the same time an initiation and a break with the past. In HANDS IN THE HEAD (1974), THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER (1981), THE PURITAN (1986), THE GIRL OF FIFTEEN (1989) that often comes through a difficult relationship with the father. In YOUNG WERTHER (1993) and THE FIRST MAN (2007) all figures of authority have disappeared.
In Jacques Doillon's dramas of childhood the family has often disappeared, dispersed by war in A BAG OF MARBLES (1975), or death in THE TREE (1982), PONETTE (1996), or social hardships in: THE HUSSY (1979), FAMIILY LOFE (1985), MANGUI (1985), THE LITTLE CRIMINAL (1990) OR LITTLE BROTHERS (1999).
In all three genres dialogue abounds because it is a true means of expression favored by the camera and the concentration of effort into a short period of time. FOR A A YES OR A NO is a confrontation in one scene, with a text by Nathalie Sarraute, André Dusollier and Jean-Louis Trinntignant, which comes across as exemplary of Doillon's "method" as it is illustrated, with greater or lesser variations, in all his films.
Dialogue does not explain the comportment of characters. It sometimes moves the action forward, but not the evolution of the characters. As in a cinema of behavior, it is through studying the characters' behavior that one learns about them. The behavior is not reaslitic….The characters do not talk face to face. Thus in THE LITTLE CRIMINAL his hand is on the wrist of Nathalie's mother, with downcast eyes.
The filmmaker finds out this truth himself cutting his films in sequences of long takes that force his actors -- professional or not, children or adults -- to repeat their performances over multiple takes, to the point of fatigue:
"Emotionally a first take is less interesting than a twelfth! Fatigue makes the guard drop away. I cannot work with an actor who is too guarded." (Positif, April 1998)
This shooting method that often requires 20 or 30 takes but in which only two or three are developed is actually inexpensive. Involving a fixed head-on camera position close to the characters, it's a method that thus comes close to a state of theatrical or psychological confinement.. . .
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