My Life and Times with Antonin Artaud

En Compagnie D'Antonin Artaud (B&W -- French)

By EMANUEL LEVY

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An Archipal 33/Laura Prods./La Septe-Arte/France 2 production. Produced by Denis Freyd. Directed by Gerard Mordillat. Screenplay, Mordillat, Jerome Prieur, based on Jacques Prevel's "En compagnie d'Antonin Artaud."
 
Antonin Artaud - Sami Frey
Jacques Prevel - Marc Barbe

 

In Gerard Mordillat's "My Life and Times With Antonin Artaud," Sami Frey gives such an astonishingly intense performance that his portrait of the genius and madness of the famed French poet/intellectual is far more insightful than that offered in the current documentary "The True Story of Artaud the Momo," co-directed by Mordillat and Jerome Prieur.

In its chronicle of a peculiar, obsessive friendship, evocative mood and stylized black-and-white cinematography, this fictionalized drama bears some resemblance to Christopher Munch's "The Hours and Times." Appealing in an idiosyncratic way, special pic deserves fest exposure and arthouse attention, especially in the U.S., where Artaud's name is virtually unknown except to theater students.

Narrative begins in May 1946, when Artaud returns to Paris after spending nine years in a Rodez asylum. His return is eagerly anticipated by Jacques Prevel (Marc Barbe), an ambitious young poet determined to follow his mentor in all his wanderings, be it to nursing homes or Saint Germain-des-Pres.

A complex relationship and intimate bond evolve between the two, with Prevel becoming Artaud's disciple, companion -- and supplier of drugs. Prevel's postwar existence, marked by misery and suffering, is brightened by interactions with his wife and longtime mistress.

Fictionalized journal is narrated by Prevel, centering on the last two years of Artaud's life. The film captures not only the creative persona of Artaud, for whom "words were bombs," but also the artistic milieu that surrounded him in the 1940s.

There have been too many cliched movies about suffering poets, but this one sheds fresh light on the effects of pain -- and mental disorder -- on creativity. Illustrating Artaud's self-rationalizing motto that "sickness makes you stronger," pic is excellent at showing the hallucinatory sensibility and wounds of a man who, confined to asylums, was ravaged for most of his life by the excruciating pain of cancer and the effects of drugs.

Ultimately, pic derives its emotional power from Frey's dominating portrayal of Artaud's contradictory personality, by turns shocking and magnificent, cruel and sensitive. Frey, who bears a physical resemblance to Artaud, has borrowed some of the artist's notorious gestures without imitating him. Strong chemistry between Frey and Barbe, as the young and handsome, but also less talented, poet makes their intense encounters credible.

Technical credits are impressive on all levels: Resourceful lensing and production design and mindful location work contribute to an indelible sense of time and place. In some scenes, pic's visual style approximates surrealist cinema as well as Theater of the Absurd, two schools of which Artaud was a founder, as evidenced in his seminal treatise, "The Theater and Its Double."

Camera (b&w), Francois Catonne; editor, Sophie Rouffio; music, Jean-Claude Petit; art direction, Jean-Pierre Clech; sound, Pierre Lorrain, Dominique Dalmasso. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 12, 1994. Running time: 93 MIN.