French screenwriter and director André Téchiné's thirteenth feature film which he co-wrote with French screenwriter Gilles Taurand and French screenwriter and director Olivier Assayas, premiered at the 43rd Valladolid International Film Festival in 1998. It tells the story about 20-year-old Martin who disappeared without notice after his father passed away. Several weeks later he shows up at his half-brother Benjamin's apartment in Paris where he meets Benjamin's partner Alice who is a violinist. Alice invites Martin to stay with them, which he does, and everything works out fine between the three, but when Martin gets a job as a model he falls in love with Alice.This fast-paced character-driven and dialog-driven psychological drama which was shot in France and Spain and produced by Alain Sarde, is a brilliantly directed romantic thriller by post-New Wave filmmaker André Téchiné with a shifting atmosphere, a parallel narrative that increases the pace and compelling milieu depictions which are emphasized by French cinematographer Caroline Champetier's notable cinematography. This plot-twisting French-Spanish co-production has a great score by French composer Philippe Sarde which features music from amongst others Jeff Buckley (1966-1997) and commendable acting performances by French actress Juliette Binoche, French actor, screenwriter and director Mathieu Amalric and French actor Alexis Loret. An intriguing mystery and an internal study of character from the late 1990s focusing on themes like coming-of-age, family relations, guilt, love and redemption.

This was a very frustrating picture to watch--partially because it seemed as if those who created it didn't consider how difficult it would be for the audience to follow the strange non-linear plot and partially because the characters are so poorly developed. Instead of the normal style of film making, ALICE ET MARTIN is told in a way that hops about from the past to the present again and again and sometimes with no apparent transition. While changing this perspective might have worked, the choppiness in connecting these segments was frustrating and at first I thought the reels had been mixed up in the wrong order! Also, many of the characters seem as if important parts of their development had been unfortunately omitted. For example, Julia Ormond ('Alice') initially dislikes Martin. Then, when they start to have a torrid affair, it almost seemed to come from no where. Then, only a short time later in the film, Martin is falling apart emotionally and treats Alice rather coldly and cruelly. You'd expect a normal person to leave, but then Alice invests her entire being in unfolding the mystery of Martin's life--at great trouble and expense to herself! Plus, how did she get from living in Spain with Martin with not even a Euro in the bank and then a scene later she's in France and no mention is made of how she got there or how much time had elapsed? Often, by the way, scenes jumped as much as a year but it was hard to know this was happening.This choppiness is a real shame, because if the film had been well edited, the characters more fully defined and the story told in a more comprehensible fashion, then it would have been a wonderful film. The basic plot involving the cold father and Martin was brilliant but got lost in the mess that was the film. The bottom line is that all the parts of the film never really worked together and the film should have been significantly better. I would love a remake--one that explores the relationship between the father and son as well as how the rest of the family is really part of the problem because they live in denial about the father--he was an evil and overbearing ogre, not the "great man" they claim he was.

In her review of 'Alice et Martin' in Cinopsis, Marina Bergamelli states that the reason why Techine made this film remains obscure.For those people who understand and know that such emotional worlds exist, it is a cathartic masterpiece of great value.It takes courage to make a feature film of this nature and am grateful to the people who undertook such an artistic endeavour.Film would be dead without them.Julian Flynn

I have seen this movie in a preview during the French week of Munich universities. Thank god, I didn't have to pay for it. This is a movie which could have been shot during the late sixties, early seventies and it's is not a classic, it's dusty.The plot is unbelievably boring, the actors do their very best to save the film from bad camera, directing and cuts. Juliette Binoche shines like a single star in an otherwise growse movie. Whoever wrote the script, he had absolutely no idea what drama or conflict is about. There is a single witty scene in this movie, when Alice tells Martin that she thought about his wooing and yes, she would like to sleep with him. He freezes, then panicly locks up the door and turns off the light before undressing her. Afterwards, he explains is behaviour with the sentence: "I wanted to do it, before you change opinion again."You don't think it's good? Beware, it is the only good scene in the movie. You think that's good? Now you know it, you don't have to see the film.Before I get flamed by the connoisseurs, yes I do like good French movies, but this movie surely isn't one. No I am no Hollywood fanatic, but this film deserved more of everything.If you want to see an excellent non-Hollywood drama, which shows you what tragedy is about, try Wintersleepers by Tom Tykwer...I warned you! 1/10 (1 for Juliette Binoche participating)