My introduction to Mathieu Amalric came with his fantastic performance as Jean-Dominique Bauby in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in 2007. My relationship with him as an actor continued with A Christmas Tale and Quantum of Solace, but I had never seen one of his directorial projects. Come to learn, Amalric served as a trainee assistant director on Louis Malle’s excellent 1988 Oscar-nominated Au revoir les enfants and directed his first feature film in 1997, Mange ta soupe.
Therefore I see the Cannes Competition entry Tournee (On Tour) as a second introduction to Amalric, and while the film didn’t bowl me over there is an undeniable playful and inviting quality to it — primarily to its characters. Tournee opens itself up to the audience through a group of fascinating players in a “new” burlesque troupe led by Joachim Zand (Amalric), a staunch former Parisian television producer that seems to have left France disgraced with the hopes of a glorious return.
After time spent in the United States he has put together a group of New Burleque strip-tease performers and has now returned to France with a crew of high-spirited Americans in tow along with the promise of ending their tour in Paris. A glorious opportunity the girls (and one guy) have virtually paid for themselves and created a unique show they hope will wow their anticipated Parisian audience.
The talented group has choreographed and designed their own pieces and perform to consistently packed and raving audiences. This leaves Joachim responsible for little more than the booking of venues and day-to-day accounting. Trouble is, his past still haunts him. Family members and business acquaintances still treat him with little to no respect, and, like a child, he returns the favor. The group ends up touring the coast of France, frequenting shoddy hotels, listening to the same canned music at each location as the tour seems to be headed toward an inevitable end.
The cast Amalric has formed for Tournee is more than it seems, in fact the ladies starring as Mimi Le Meaux (Miranda Colclasure), Kitten on the Keys (Suzanne Ramsey), Dirty Martini (Linda Marraccini), Julie Atlas Muz (Julie Ann Muz), Evie Lovelle (Angela de Lorenzo) and Roky Roulette (Alexander Craven) are played by their real life personalities. They are the life of the film, a film that can — at times — be rather comical, but otherwise paints a picture of loneliness. It asks how much one can do on their own and without the help of others and the answer is extremely clear by the film’s end, but not before peeling back the layers.
Amalric mentions in the press notes names such as Federico Fellini, an obvious influence on the film’s playful nature. He also compares Joachim’s personality to the relationship between iconic French directors Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. My familiarity with the Truffaut and Godard relationship is limited, but I would say from what I have heard, it was a competitive, but strong friendship, and one Amalric referred to in an interview with the New York Times saying, “Talented people are terrible, they eat up those around them because, well, they have a job to do.” The comparison is apt, but I think it also proves the difficulty this film is going to have relating to audiences.
Much of Tournee feels abstract. It’s almost like a live look-in on the lives of this group of people and while Amalric chooses to drop us in on them out of the blue, he does a solid job developing the characters and giving the audience necessary information as to where they come from and where they’re going — if anywhere. However, the abrupt introduction and where the film ends up never makes it feel like a complete picture. The comparison to a Fellini piece is appropriate, but the film doesn’t create enough sustainable layers to justify a nearly two hour runtime while Federico could go on for hours before I ever begin to look at my watch.
Tournee is In Competition at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival and will be included in the voting for the Palme d’Or.
