Notre Histoire [Our Story] **** (1984, Alain Delon, Nathalie Baye) – Classic Movie Review 13,063

Alain Delon and Nathalie Baye both won a César award in 1985 for writer/ director Bertrand Blier’s 1984 French absurdist drama film Notre Histoire [Our Story]. Bertrand Blier won the film’s third César award for Best Writing.

Alain Delon plays Robert Avranches, a well-off garage owner with a wife and two little children, and Nathalie Baye plays Donatienne Pouget, a 33-year-old divorcée who picks up men on trains for fun. Avranches is her latest pickup, when she walks into his first-class compartment of a train from Geneva to Paris and makes love to him. After she gets out at the next stop, he makes the mistake of following her.

Smart, teasing entertainment, cleverly written, enjoyable and satisfying, offering two superb acting opportunities that are eagerly grabbed by a pair of largely under-rated actors, taking chances and succeeding. It’s a nice, well-rewarded change of pace for Delon from all his crime and gangster movies.

Delon was previously nominated for the Best Actor César Award for Mr Klein (1976).

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon (8 November 1935 – 18 August 2024) is best remembered for Women Are Weak (1959), Purple Noon (1960), Rocco and His Brothers (1960), L’Eclisse (1962), The Leopard (1963), Le Samouraï (1967), The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968), La Piscine (1969), Le Cercle Rouge (1970), Un flic (1972), Mr Klein (1976) and Notre Histoire (1984).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,063

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