Alliance French Film Festival- “Under the Rainbow”

“Under the Rainbow” opens with a dream sequence that sets the stage for Agnes Jaoui’s new comedy-drama, perfectly encapsulating this kitsch, colourful and unexpectedly existential French film.

 

A modern-day fairytale which hints, borrows from and outright bastardizes almost every children’s story and cultural myth imaginable, “Under the Rainbow” is a collected tale. Revolving around the innocent Laura (Agathe Bonitzer) falling in love with both shy but determined aspiring composer Sandro (Arthur Dupont) and his semi-mentor, the darkly selfish but enigmatic Maxime (Benjamin Biolay), the film contains everything one could dream up for such an undertaking.

 

Director Jaoui and screenwriting partner Jean-Pierre Bacri have collaborated previously, establishing themselves as masters of the slightly offbeat romantic comedy. As actors in their own films, the two veterans of the French film industry pair together seamlessly, creating a warm and witty approach to some of the deeper anxieties about humanity.

 

The intricate tangle of stories contains every literary reference imaginable, from Prince Charming, to Red Riding Hood, to the evil stepmother, the fairy godmother, and the big bad wolf. Underneath these is the true gold of the movie, the idea that fairytale lives are often unattainable, and that the subtle nuances of human nature often get in the way of true love, dreams and familial relationships.

 

The dialogue is offset with sly one-liners and anxieties about death which provide much needed light and shade to what could have been a pastiche of nonsensical myth narratives. Sandro’s father Pierre (Bacri) and Laura’s aunt Marianne (Jaoui) form a bizarre and touching relationship as Marianne learns to drive under Pierre’s tutelage. Their offbeat and honest conversations, largely conducted whilst in the car, are refreshingly real and offer an existential counterpart to the fantastical developments of their younger relatives relationship.

 

Laura and Sandro’s romance begins to derail, thwarted by the older Maxime, and somewhat generically resolves itself with a typically French statement of “They lived happily ever after…and strayed often”. Cutting between the two narratives of the middle-aged and the youthful, the film does a good job of balancing the expectations of life with its reality, and contrasts dark humour and sardonic anxieties with the essentially juvenile foibles of the younger characters.

 

The constant and heavy-handed allusions to various fairytales seemed unnecessary, and somewhat jarring in a narrative that could have operated much more cleanly without the constraints of such intertextuality. Whilst the film is perhaps too convoluted, it’s self-consciousness does create a depth of history and meaning that can only come from the weight of so many mythic references. “Under the Rainbow” is free from didacticism, and without a moral centre, develops into a whimsical exploration of the wishes and desires that we hold dear to our hearts.

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