“It’s very strange, isn’t it? I remember Renoir
gave me this fantastic piece of advice. He said that when you direct you should
always leave the door open because unexpected things can come in. In other
words, don’t structure everything too rigidly because then there won’t be room
to experiment.”--- wistfully reminisced Bernardo Bertolucci in a recent
interview and those who have fallen under the spell of this prodigy would never
have an iota of hesitation to concede how faithfully he has stuck to his
illustrious predecessor’s advice. His latest
endeavour, ‘Me and You’, an Italian language film, does not break away
from this mould. But I’m afraid the diehard fans of Bertolucci, whose cinematic creed and craft
so profoundly inspired heavyweights like Francis De Coppola, Steven Spielberg
and Martin Scorsese , would discover a rather faint resonance of the cinematic prowess and panache which he is
known for in the film. The reason is perhaps the minimalist approach he has
adopted ,or should I say, been forced to adopt(because he has been infirm for
the last one decade and had to direct the film from his wheel chair) in his
treatment.
Thematically , Bertolucci’s film focuses on a subject which recurs in
quite a few of his seminal films at varying degrees---the dynamics of the
adolescence psyche and the loss of innocence. Fourteen year old Fabrizio is dying to be alone for a while living his own life
in solitude. He equips himself with enough provisions for a week and hibernates
down in his mother’s basement having lied to her that he is out on a school
skiing trip for a week . But his
blissful solitude away from the mumbo jumbo of day to day life is
somewhat ruffled up when his half-sister Olivia suddenly emerges from nowhere and discovers him in his
hideout. If Fabrizio ,who is desperate to be left alone , is in the throes of
some ‘weird’ claustrophilia ,Olivia,
once a promising photographer and now a recovering junkie, is no less troubled
and tormented a teenager suffering withdrawal symptoms from her drug
abuse, and pained by her family’s callous indifference to her. What follows is a modest and minimalist
yet considerably absorbing psychological drama of self discovery and
reconciliation played out with considerable veracity. It is a film which,
cutting across its dismal and gloomy
contour, winds up arousing a flipper of optimism.
Given its minimalist context, ‘Me and You’ is
a well-shot, well-directed, and well-edited film. The entire story virtually unfolds itself in a stuffy
and stingy basement area involving two characters. Quality close quarter
cinematography with a judicious blending of shots and angles and spiffy editing
rhythms successfully redeem the
claustrophobic ambience . Yet one must concede the dash and verve of the maker
of ‘The Dreamer’, ‘The Last Emperor’, ‘The Conformists’ and the ‘The Last Tango
in Paris’ are palpably conspicuous by their absence in ‘Me and You’ and , and
consequently the film, despite being a tonal beauty reminiscent of Bertolucci’s
deftness as a top notch director, turns out to be a letdown for his
connoisseurs.
