My American Uncle

Based on the writings of French physician/philosopher Henri Laborit: the lives of three individuals are chronicled and analyzed using theories of how human lives and behaviours are formed and the results of inner and outer conflicts due to early programming. The individuals are René (Gérard Depardieu), a devout Catholic who left behind his farming family and became an executive in a textile factory; Janine (Nicole Garcia) whose family cut ties with her when she pursued a successful career in acting; and Jean (Roger Pierre) who was born into wealth and works in politics and writing. It is clear at the beginning that this film is unconventional. The opening sequence has three simultaneous narrations of the early lives of the main characters and it takes a very long time - much longer than most narrations take. But it all pays off. The information is valuable for the fascinating stories of what happens to the characters later on. The acting of the three leads is solid. Among some of the best scenes: Depardieu and Pierre each have at least one hissy fit moment in which they are hilarious, chewing up the scenery and everyone else in it. The Depardieu story is particularly fascinating as it accurately displays the unethical viciousness of the corporate world. (Notice the film takes place in 1980, a decade in which corporate deviousness would begin to take over the world and worsen with each decade that followed.) The René story can resonate with anyone who has spent any time in corporate purgatory. The frequent narration of the film is intriguing in its observations of human behaviour using three fine examples. The style of the film is experimental. Usually, this means disaster but in the case of "Mon Oncle d'Amérique", the experimental style not only works; it works quite well. - dbamateurcritic RATING: 9 out of 10 OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT: Screenplay by Jean Gruault.

In one word: brilliant. I agree with the majority of the reviews, however who is the uncle? Where is America?

Truly I don't think there has ever been a film put together like Jean Resnais' Mon oncle d'Amerique. The narration by a well-known scientist, the stories of three people, interspersed with film clips starring Danielle Darrieux, Jean Gabin, and Jean Marais. Go figure. Mon oncle d'Amerique begins slowly and one becomes impatient for something to happen. Stick with it. Psychologist Henri Laborit explains his theories, punctuated by the behavior of animals, as the stories of three people who are somewhat connected are told. And we see that the humans react in much the same way as the animals do in the various behavioral experiments. The story most people will be able to relate to most is the one featuring Gerard Depardieu, a man faced with the merger of his company and impending job loss. The film runs the gamut of high drama, humor, and tragedy. Most of the characters are likable and have a good deal of warmth. They are us, some of the situations are familiar, and the take on human behavior is fascinating. Even Jean Gabin, Jean Marais, and Danielle Darrieux get pulled into it - actors yes, but portraying human beings.

Alain Resnais' Mon Oncle d'Amerique is an interesting intellectual exercise that sometimes works as a movie. It centers around the concepts of scientist philosopher Henri Laborit, who sees human actions as programmatic reactions based on physical phenomenon; thousands of tiny instructions and visceral reactions that create what we believe is free will. Some IMDB reviewers find that cynical, but I find it quite convincing. These ideas are laid out through the lives of three people. Laborit explains how mice react in experiments while we watch mice, then we see how human beings react in seemingly analogous ways. Sometimes to drive the point out human dramas are played out by humans wearing mice-head masks. At the same time, the dramas in the characters lives are juxtaposed with brief film clips. This puzzled me for most of the movie until I realized it was a way of comparing how people see their own actions - as big, dramatic moments full of fury and passion and despair - with how Laborit sees them. Resnais' films are all, from what I've seen, intellectual and experimental. But some, like Hiroshima Mon Amour, are also dramatically and emotionally compelling. In the case of Mon Oncle d'Amerique I never felt a strong connection to its characters. Take away the Laborit framework and you've got a pretty conventional slice of lives movie. Resnais is always interesting but not always enjoyable. This movie is, for me, fairly interesting and mildly enjoyable. It's worth watching, but not something I would watch again.

By making "Mon Oncle D'Amérique" / My American uncle, French director Alain Resnais made a strong as well as serious attempt to comprehend whether human beings are same as rats ? He wanted to portray the fundamental behavior of human beings when confronted with a rival or dealing with life's tough situations. For this film, Resnais teamed up with famous French neurobiologist Henri Laborit to investigate whether the behavioral traits of human beings can be observed as precisely as those of rats in laboratories ? This film features outstanding performances by Gérard Depardieu and Nicole Garcia.In many ways, the acting performances of this film's actors is a direct tribute to the glorious past of French cinema. Each major actor is shown as connected to another colossal figure of French cinema. This is done by linking Depardieu with Jean Gabin and Jean Marais and Nicole Garcia with Danielle Darrieux.My American uncle is neither difficult nor intellectual in nature.It is a different film as before Alain Resnais no director thought of amalgamating a feature film with shades of documentary film's aesthetics. It is a film which requires viewers to display some form of intelligence in order to comprehend scientific explanations which are "Raison D'être" of its characters' behavioral as well as personal traits. The historical importance of "My American uncle" is due to the fact that Resnais' film features creators as 'real stars' as opposed to actors as 'real stars'.

This film does What European films are good at, making life meaningful and interesting, no small feat. No car chases, gun fights, or martial arts needed. The film is structured like a text book. First the professor lectures and then examples illustrating the lecture follow. It takes the 4 basic human drives and develops a plethora of behaviours from them. Here lies the wonder of the film. Examples that would be boring in a test book are brought to life with amazing skill and artfulness by Resnais, and the actors. The science in the film is outdated. for example, it is no longer believed that the brain is tabula rasa at birth. However, this does not diminish the worth of the film as an artistic endeavor.

I have just seen the film in my city's biggest cine club with just about all my cinema colleagues. When I bought the ticket I was handled a leaflet with comments of some critics and the very first sentence was "it questions what it is to be French" which obviously scared me. Although I much love the European country and do like many of its films, this is not a question I catch myself asking every now and then. It seemed like a Nouvelle Vague personal crisis of what am I, where I am at, and all that... and I have to say my opinion about the Nouvelle Vague is quite controversial to most of the cinema fans. When the film began, the explanation of the thesis the movies shows most willingness to prove, I all had was a confirmation and a damn-it-what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here sensation. However, I've payed for the ticket, I had slept for the whole afternoon and I didn't have money for extra beers outside the cinema, so I stubbornly decided to stay. And what a wise decision I have made! The plot goes on beautifully questioning everything (and I couldn't spot the French questions, thanks God). I actually saw questions about love and life - definitely not exclusive to the French. I saw characters that were designed with a precise care - not excessively harsh, nor excessively romantic. Real people with real problems and real solutions (for the good or for the bad). In a sensitive and reasonable balance, not in the hysterical way many movies end up going whilst pondering about such questions. I have to say I thought a zillion times on the last part of the movie that this was the time to stop, to finish. And the director kept on repeating scenes and talking about all his personal theories - which I think the viewer has the legitimate right to formulate. But it kept on going and kept on going like a brainwash. I, myself, and what I think is my intelligence, got a little offended. In the overall, I really enjoyed the film. And I am going to watch some other Resnais' work to see if his cutting skills had developed, don't worry.

Its a lot like a Greek Tragedy, except the chorus is supplemented by evolutionary psychologist and pharmacologist Henri Labroit explaining the actions of the characters in terms of his ideas concerning human and mammal behavior; consumption behavior, escape behavior, combat behavior, and inhibition behavior. We trace the lives of three characters from birth through childhood, and into the drama of their adult lives. Their adult lives are full of struggles with career, family, relationships, intersecting at times, but only as dramatic as real life allows. Its the way Alain Resnais constructs the stories that makes them fascinating. We observe them largely as a scientist might, in terms of parents, environment, traits, and habits. At one point Labroit discusses shock experiments done on mice, in later scenes we flash back to the characters who have giant mouse heads, the effect is startling and funny, at once. The most complex human emotions are rendered as functions of the animal brain, human relationships are as simple as mice being given aversion therapy, or as complex, depending on how you look at it. Labroit and Resnais seems at odds at times, about the miraculousness and simplicity of it all, but it helps to make the movie more dynamic. Its educational and informational as a science documentary, but the drama is so well entergrated the intellectual stimulation is offset, by a real sense of attachment and catharsis for and with the characters. The problems of their lives are those everyone experiences, Gerard Depardieu is a devout catholic, raised on a farm, who works at a factory and is struggling with being downsized. Nicole Garcia is raised by communist parents, and becomes an actress and later a stylist, having an affair with the married...Roger Pierre, the head of the French Ministry of Radio, raised by an affluent family, who longs to write a book about the history of the sun. I've only seen two Resnais films, "Hiroshima Mon Amour" and "Last Year At Marienbad"(which I fell asleep while watching twice), and this is somewhere between the emotional fallout of the first and the experimental daring of the later, but its my favorite of the three. An enthralling, fascinating, and profound film, that's as emotionally disarming as it is intellectually engaging. Visually it's stunning as well. The final image of the Forest mural on the building speaks volumes. I need more Resnais in my life.

I'm not usually that big a fan of Resnais' films, but this dissection of middle class France circa 1980 is quite engaging. The movie intertwines three stories, loosely connected: the story of a civil servant, that of a middle manager in a textile firm (Gerard Depardieu, in the most interesting segment) and that of an actress (Nicole Garcia, the least interesting one). The stories are commented by biologist Henri Laborit, who elaborates on how we respond to external circumstances in modern society and at one point compares the reactions of the characters to the pressures of society to those of rats in a laboratory. (The constant references to actors in French classical cinema is less interesting, as cinephilia seems to be a particular French obsession). Laborit's theories might be outdated or naive, but they make a funny counterpoint to the action. I came out of the movie with the idea of modern capitalist society as a pressure cooker to those who want to play high in the game - nothing new, but it's well illustrated in the film. And to those of us old enough to remember the late seventies and early eighties, is fun to see back the clothes, the cars, etc., that people use back then on the screen.

This movie contains three elements: a neurological/psychological lecture, a melodrama of three intersecting lives, and scenes from black and white French movies. Presumably, these elements are supposed to add up to an artistic unity, but they work against each other instead, so that the net result is irritating. Especially confusing is the way the backgrounds of the three major characters are presented like someone hurriedly reading their dossiers. If the entire film were simply a discussion on neurology and psychology, it might have been interesting. If it were just a melodrama, it might have been enjoyable. But the combination of the two creates the feeling that we are being talked down to. Over and over we are told that our conscious mind thinks it has reasons for what it does, but we are duped by our unconscious. No doubt, that is sometimes the case. But intercut with the melodrama, this lecture condescendingly suggests that we would not be able to understand these people and what they do without the benefit of the lecture. References to American uncles are reminders that we live lives of illusion, since people express doubts about these uncles. The gratuitous scenes from old movies presumably are supposed to reinforce this notion of the illusory conscious mind. The movie as a whole is less than the sum of its parts.