Tous Les Matins Du Monde ***

Tous Les Matin Du Monde . . . this just rolls off the tongue. All the mornings in the World; it just doesn't have the same ring, does it? I watched this movie not long after I watched Camille Claudel. I think I watched it for Gerard Depardieu. He was on my hit list for males who should be tortured a horribly long time for being so evil when he played Rodin.

According to Netflix, the story goes as follows:

Racked with grief after his wife's untimely death, gifted viola da gamba player Monsieur de Sainte Colombe (Jean-Pierre Marielle) moves into a small house in his garden to keep himself and his two young daughters (Anne Brochet and Carole Richert) safe from the outside world. But their solitude is broken when a young musician comes calling (played by Gerard Depardieu's son, Guillaume, and later by Depardieu himself) in search of a lesson.

Length:105 minutes

Director:
Alain Corneau
Cast:
Gérard Depardieu
Jean-Pierre Marielle
Guillaume Depardieu
Anne Brochet
Carole Richert
Michel Bouquet
Jean-Claude Dreyfus
Myriam Boyer
Yves Lambrecht
Philippe Duclos

Right . . . I am not sure exactly why they present the movie in this manner. Others may have watched this movie and walked away with a story about a musican who vied for the King's attention. A musician who wanted to be better than his potential and went to find a teacher to help him become better. And this young man was treated poorly by this master musican and then had an affair with the master musician's daughter. Right . . .

Obviously, I did not come away with that story. For me, the theme was once again how women are caught up in the middle of men's self centered goals. Madeline (Anne Brochet) is an amazingly gifted musician. I can't remember if it is the viola or the violin. She and her sister live with their grief stricken widower father. Madeline makes the mistake of falling for a shallow, fame seeking Marin.

Marin only wants to steal from the master musician Sainte Colombe. And he does. He steals his musical creations; he steals his daughter; he steals her life. The self serving b@$!@>& is tossed out by Sainte Colombe. Does Marin ever one why he was tossed out? No, he just feels it is unjustified. And Madeline, yet another young woman foolishly following her heart, throws away her life to help a Marin who is an ungrateful greedy SOB. She betrays her father by teaching Marin. Then she falls for him and gets pregnant! Of all the dumbest things to do.

This whole time, Marin professes his love and devotion. He shallowness is evident when he lets his undeserved fame get to his head. He tosses Madeline aside like yesterday's rubbish. He heartlessly shatters her heart. Grief stricken, she kills herself. What does Marin then learn? He lesson was the Saint Colombe was right! Marin was not a true musician. He then spends THREE years hiding and waiting to hear Saint Colombe play again so that he could once again steal from the master musician. No thought for the disaster he has caused.

When I first saw the movie, I was so angry that yet another bright shining star was snuffed out. And specifically snuffed out in a Male dominating/destroying/desecrating a Female scenario. It once again confirmed my believe that males are inherently evil and will never treat a female as a partner or even as a cherished loved one. (See my femi-nazi side showing? Did I mention I had recently broken up with my boyfriend and he was very unhappy that I scored higher on standardized test than him and was accepted at better colleges?)

When I look back at it now, I see that while the male was definitely a jerk, the female enabled him. Her weakness for him undermined her. She could have not killed herself. She could have striven to show him how much better she was than him and gone to court herself and taken up the spot he so cherished. That would have been vengeance that I could appreciate. For hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.