Love arrives too late

Jean-Claude evicts tenants and seizes their possessions with a polite firmness that brooks no argument. He doesn't like his job and he doesn't care much for his fault-finding father (Georges Wilson), whom he visits at a home every week. His only real pleasure is a dancing academy where he tries gingerly to learn the tango.

There he is approached by a woman, FranÁoise (Consigny), who claims to know his mother. Gradually he becomes obsessed with her, only to discover she is about to be married. There are characters, Brize says, who never learn what it is to love or be loved. And sometimes it is too late when the door is finally unlocked.

Brize watches the two central performances like a hawk and the actors repay his attention superbly. There's a particularly good scene when Jean-Claude finally tells his father what he thinks of him and then guiltily discovers that the old man has had a fatal stroke. This is a film full of small details that have the ring of truth - its seeming slightness amounts to more than you might think.

Not Here To Be Loved (Je Ne Suis Pas La Pour Etre Aime)
Cert: 15