Part of The Oregonian's team coverage of the Portland International Film Festival....
A fair amount of traumatic stuff happens in "2 Autumns, 3 Winters" -- muggings, relationship tests, suicidal depression, even the odd life-threatening medical crisis and melodramatic coincidence. But writer/director Sébastien Betbeder's French seriocomic romance still feels light (or emotionally distant, depending), thanks to the film's fusillade of stylistic tics.
Betbeder's tale of aging art-school grads (Vincent Macaigne, Maud Wyler) falling in love is told as a near-relentless collage of fourth-wall-breaking monologues -- "High Fidelity"-style -- and peppered with chapter breaks, dream sequences, and clips from other movies.
The constant talking-head interjections keep the film at a slight documentary remove from its heaviest material; I would rather have seen certain key moments instead of being told about those moments by characters standing in front of green screens. But the cast's lumpy charm still wins the film -- putting it more or less in the neighborhood of Cédric Klapisch's "Spanish Apartment"/"Russian Dolls" series, entertainment-wise.
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(France; 91 min.) Grade: B. Showtimes:
- 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, OMSI
- 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, Whitsell
'2 Autumns, 3 Winters' (The Oregonian, Friday, Feb. 14, 2014) [ PIFF website listing ]
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