Alice et Martin

With this unorthodox love story of Alice (Binoche) and Martin (Loret), André Téchiné has produced his most mature film to date. The story traces Martin's history backwards and forwards in time. His mother (Maura) had an affair with stern industrialist Victor (Maguelon), and at ten, their son (the impressive Kreikenmayer) joins his Cahors household with devastating results. Missing since his father's death, the son arrives years later at the Paris flat shared by his sympathetic homosexual stepbrother Benjamin, a struggling actor, and sensitive violinist Alice. He stays, taking work as a model, and Alice's distanced attitude changes subtly from intrigue to love. Téchiné's trademark interests - contrasting examinations of restrictive provincial life and young urban lives - are much to the fore. For all the increasing sophistication of Téchiné's technique, the emotions he deals with are basic, and all the more powerful for it. Loret plays Martin with an almost feral quality: he stalks Alice, his immobile arms making him look like a Bresson anti-hero. Binoche trusts her director and it shows; and Marthe Villalonga, as the stepmother, is superb.