Monday, March 16, 1998
‘Post Coitum’ addresses a persistent cultural taboo
Rouean wrote, directed exploration of dangerous fairy-tale love
between older women, younger men
By Michelle Nguyen
Daily Bruin Contributor
Filmmaker Brigitte Rouean went to America six years ago and was
struck by the phenomenon of older women dating young men. She
figured America was always six years ahead of France, but this time
she was mistaken.
"When I came back to Paris I made inquiries about this and I
discovered that French girls copy the American girls, but they were
hiding themselves because it was still a taboo," Rouean says as she
sits in her hotel suite smoking the petite Capris that match her
petite, confident stature.
This observation provided the byline that would cause problems
for the two lovers in the new film "Post Coitum" which Rouean
wrote, directed and starred in.
"I took from America the story of the age difference because I
wanted a handicap to that love story, a handicap to that patient,"
Rouean says.
The love patient in the film, played by Rouean herself, is Diane
Clovier, a 40-year-old book editor who leads a nice mediocre life
consisting of a husband and two children. In comes Emilio (Boris
Terral), a young strapping lad who has her dropping her baggage of
banality to run free with passion.
The problem of their age difference is readily apparent. The
tide turns when Diane and Emilio go to visit his grandfather, who
asks Boris if he is planning to start a family with this older
woman.
Diane herself encounters self-doubt about her age. There is a
moving scene where she stands naked in front of the mirror to
evaluate herself, smoothing over the fine wrinkles and looser skin
that make her feel ugly.
"The day we had to shoot that scene I nearly cut it," Rouean
says. "I was so moved and troubled to do it that in front of the
mirror while they were preparing the shoot I nearly cried, and I
said I don’t want to cry in front of all my crew."
But she did not cut the scene because she realized that as a
director she would have made any other actress do the scene.
The strong traditions of impossible love in the French
literature of Moliere, Racine and Corneille influenced Rouean to
add a handicap to the relationship between Diane and Boris. She is
interested in the idea that people in Western cultures do not ever
believe that a love is fated to die.
"In Asia it’s quite different. Marriage, weddings have nothing
to do with love. It’s an arrangement," Rouean says. "But the poison
of love is an accident. The poison of love is when you are a little
girl they told you fairy tales like "Sleeping Beauty." As you are a
girl you are told there is one single Prince Charming for you in
the world, which is stupid and false because there are a lot of
charming princes but nobody is absolutely perfect."
Even Rouean admits that the shell of the storyline might sound
trite, but the courage and controversy that dots her films had
producers running away from this film. One critic thought the film
might be immoral because of the wild abandon that marks Diane’s
relationship with Emilio, especially when Diane has to deal with
the aftershock of Emilio leaving her.
Rouean is sympathetic to her character’s spiral downward into
depression which leads her to abandon her family.
"If she had cancer nobody would have said she left her kids,"
Rouean explains. "She had a nervous breakdown so she has a right to
leave the children. She is ill."
But the finished product brought about much critical acclaim in
France, receiving praise for its bold approach to love.
Unlike her previous film, "Overseas," which sparked a good deal
of political debate, "Post Coitum" seems to tempt confession.
Rouean received many letters from older women and young men who
wanted to talk about the futile relationships they had been in.
The film’s full title in France, "Post Coitum Animal Triste"
which is taken from the Roman poet Ovid to mean "after sex, the
animal is sad," was a good choice for Rouean because it spoke of
how painful passion can be and how stupid it can make you. And the
passion that drives Diane’s pain is preceded by the passion
"durante coitum."
"Usually I think if you put sex in movies it’s boring because
from south to north to east to west, everybody makes love
similarly," Rouean says. "If you put sex on the screen, what
happens? You put two actors in a bed, you spray Evian on their face
to make sweat and that’s it. It’s gymnastic, which is boring."
The love scenes were shot to highlight the differences in age
between the two naked bodies.
She continues, "Each scene we had sex we tried to have an
intention behind it and we discussed it with Boris and with the
husband, in terms of lines or in terms of emotion or in terms of
fear, in terms of pleasure."
But Rouean did not intentionally put punch in the love scenes to
make the story bolder or more controversial.
"I didn’t decide to make an erotic scene," Rouean explains.
"It’s like grace. You don’t choose to have grace. You have or you
have not. It’s a result."
FILM: "Post Coitum" opens Friday.
New Yorker
Rouean stars as Diane in the French film "Post Coitum," which
she also wrote and directed.