Prof. Henri Laborit uses the stories of the lives of three people to discuss behaviorist theories of survival, combat, rewards and punishment, and anxiety. René is a technical manager at a textile factory and must face the anxiety caused by corporate downsizing. Janine is a self-educated actress/stylist who learns that the wife of her lover is dying and must decide to let them reunite. Jean is a controversial career-climbing writer/politician at a crossroads in life.
Gérard Depardieu Nicole Garcia Roger Pierre Nelly Borgeaud Pierre Arditi Gérard Darrieu Philippe Laudenbach Marie Dubois Henri Laborit Bernard Malaterre Laurence Roy Alexandre Rignault Véronique Silver Jean Lescot Geneviève Mnich Maurice Gauthier Guillaume Boisseau Ina Bedart Ludovic Salis François Calvez Stephanie Loustau Monique Mauclair Damien Boisseau Gaston Vacchia Bertrand Lepage Jean-Philippe Puymartin Catherine Frot Valérie Dréville Brigitte Roüan Show All…
Meu Tio da América, Mio Zio d'America, 내 미국 삼촌, Mi tío de América, Min onkel i Amerika, Mio zio d'America, Mein Onkel aus Amerika, Amerikai nagybácsim, O Meu Tio da América, 我的美国舅舅, Чичо ми от Америка, Můj strýček z Ameriky, Min farbror från Amerika, Мой американский дядюшка, Ο θείος μου από την Αμερική, Мій американський дядечко, 我的美國舅舅, El meu oncle d’Amèrica
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France
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Netherlands
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“Mon oncle d'Amérique” is the rare film where form and character exist in service of theory.
Of course - theory emerges from the mind of man, and so - is equally as fallible as the wills and desires of those who create it.
Alain Resnais’ “Mon oncle” is a multi-narrative movie, with allegorical tangents that correspond to the philosophies of real life French neurologist Henri Laborit. In addition to fictional narratives within the work, Laborit himself appears to offer commentary and narration - making “Mon oncle” something between documentary and psychological expression.
The immediate reaction is to assume that Laborit, and his base concept of the four types of animal behavior: consumption, escape, struggle, and inhibition, are the god-like arbiters…
Mon oncle d’Amérique is a film that I am almost positive is on par with some of Alain Resnais greatest works but it is also one of his most challenging thus taking much more effort and repeated viewings to fully grasp and encapsulate the magnificent scope of life he presents here. In many respects the collaboration between Resnais cinematic prowess and philosopher Henri Laborit's "theories on evolutionary psychology regarding the relationship of self and society"* combines to make a jarring portrait of life and all of its mechanics. Call this Resnais Tree of Life long before Malick ever dreamed of creating a film that explains our existence in such visual detail.
The title may sound misleading at first but once…
i.
life watches us at every turn,
like the predacious bird,
waiting to swoop upon it’s innocent prey,
caught so off guard in it’s blissful ignorance,
merely merrily going on about it’s daily exercises,
those exercises which taint every minute of a day
with pre-decided tasks.
the routine of the everyday,
breeds a complacency so devout
that it becomes a form of religion,
and in that separated region of existence,
we become vulnerable to any attack which might,
just perhaps,
arise to take the prize of our unmarked lives.
ii.
we are the idols whom raised us,
for we but follow their legacies
as offered to us in those earliest of years.
and, in this light, we are only the…
Miles more accessible than Last Year at Marienbad or Hiroshima, My Love, My American Uncle is a relatively friendly entry in Alain Resnais' glorious filmography, further expanding his razor sharp, at times playful dissection of human conditions. With a wittily crafted style of intercut of multiple storylines as well as between voiceover and narration, Resnais successfully manufactured another one of his complex yet fascinating human study that's as inviting as it's highbrow and unreachable.
My American Uncle ultimately deals with the source of all humanly unhappiness, which according to Resnais is the concerted effort of both our biological defaults as well as the pressures our acquired social norms have on us. To demonstrate his rather intriguing philosophy, Resnais created three…
If you torture two rats, trapped in the same place, they will fight, much as if you drive humans into situations, circumstances, a whole life of pain and dissatisfaction, they will fight, get sick, and/or attempt suicide. What this film shows us, as if we were watching a university psychology lecture, is that Henri Laborit, a leading scientist on the matter, has a theory connecting these two ideas. It delves into the neurology behind it all, and it suggests that we are very much products of our upbringings and environments.
It reminded me of a great blog post or article I once read from someone who was basically saying that when confronted about "giving a pass" to violent offenders who…
A being’s only reason for being is being.
Dammit Alain, I’m a film lover, not a philosopher!
Here’s another film that makes me wish I was smarter. It’s the third film I’ve watched by Alain Resnais and again I feel like I need to watch it two or three more times before I can even start to grasp what he’s trying to say.
With that said, I did appreciate that he engages my brain in an effort to keep up, and I’m confident that beneath the “artful gimmicks” there’s something of substance…which is not something I can say for every art house director.
My favorite moments were how certain scenes were echoed by silent movie clips of films the characters…
With its chief interests evolving to be the workings of the human mind, My American Uncle pursues three characters whose lives occasionally intersect. It's a fascinating narrative experiment from French film director Alain Resnais with his lead characters endowed with some exquisitely textured performances courtesy of Nicole Garcia, Roger-Pierre, and Gerard Depardieu. In addition, its somewhat unusual structure occurs through a provocative framework provided by the surgeon and microbiologist Henri Laborit as himself. He talks over the film's three interconnected tales concerning biological concepts and the behaviouralism of the characters, further highlighting their actions and efforts. This narration, although sporadic, helps to express the unorthodox way that Resnais often constructs his films. Here, thanks to the writing by Jean Gruault, the frequently-tedious lectures by Dr Laborit become lifted out of their abstraction, and it results in a film that acquires an impulsive and profound poignancy.
Everyone: For the love of God can you please just make one ordinary film!
France: Non.
🤷🏻
What can I say - it’s certainly structured different than anything I’ve seen before, I learned a lot of anatomy, biology and the human psyche.. the monologues are pretty good, the plot.. hmm.. The plot was strangely captivating, one of those interconnected almost feverish plots that you need to watch to understand. The set-up for each plot line / scene is different to say the least. The editing is amazing and it’s weirdly entertaining and comedic at times.
I’ve read some reviews on Letterboxd, that seem to understand what Alain Resnais was trying to do, I still can’t comprehend a single thing. Guessing I’m dumb or something.. still enjoyed it and recommend it. I’m off to the Internet to find out what I just witnessed.
7th Alain Resnais (after Last Year in Marienbad, Night and Fog, Statues Also Die, Providence, Stavisky... and Same Old Song)
Resnais is a director who seemed to get more interesting as he got older. Yes, the 50s and 60s works that I've seen I admire very much, but the later films go deeper into the layers of existence, moving beyond the language of politics to attempt to uncover the intellectual architecture behind consciousness. In My American Uncle, Resnais attempts to tackle notions of learned and unconscious behaviour through the writings of Henri Laborit, a neurobiologist with some very (at the time) radical ideas about human interaction. The film alternates between Laborit explaining his theories and a fictional story about three…
One doesn't often dive as far as the 1980s in search of French New Wave films, mostly because by that time, the French Wave wasn't exactly... well, new. According to Criterion, Mon oncle d'Amérique qualifies as a New Wave film, and from a level of presentation, Alain Resnais's 1980 effort certainly fits the bill. As with his most famous films, the narrative is rather theoretical while the presentation mirrors that conceptuality with pronounced editing decisions. This style served Resnais well in Hiroshima mon amour and Last Year at Marienbad, where his level of abstraction hit that Goldilocks zone of perfect captivation, while a film like Muriel solidly entered the, "I don't really get what's going on here, but you get…
I’ve had a hard time in the past with Alain Resnais’ films. Twice I’ve tried watching Last Year in Marienbad and Hiroshima Mon Amour, and each time I’ve failed to enjoy anything beyond their surface beauty. So it was with low expectations that I approached Resnais’ My American Uncle. But I needn’t have worried. It’s a great film.
My American Uncle is unusually and ambitiously structured. It presents us with, quite literally, a lecture about life, as well as a character drama about the intertwining lives of three people, and an amusing parallel representation of their lives as told through outtakes from films featuring the great French actor Jean Gabin. This is all pretty meta stuff. It amounts to a…
Like many of Alain Resnais´ movies, “My American Uncle” is a cinematic experiment. The film combines and juxtaposes three interwoven stories following three different people with the musings of French scientist and philosopher Henri Laborit on topics such as evolutionary biology, psychology, and behavioral science. This is a very original concept and makes the film a fascinating experience, like it´s part narrative feature and part lecture. It´s a layered and thematically rich movie that has interesting things to say about nature vs. nurture, the self, free will, and human society. As it is often the case in Resnais films, the editing is the real highlight. Unfortunately, the three fragmented subplots are not that captivating on their own and the science and narrative aspects do not blend together as perfectly as I hoped. And while there are some memorable moments, overall, the movie left me pretty cold. Still, the innovative concept and insightful commentary makes it worth watching.
