My Man
My Man
| 15 August 1997 (USA)
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In Lyon, where many are unemployed, Marie is a prostitute who loves her work: she's thoughtful and exuberant toward clients old and young, slim or flabby. One night, a homeless man sleeps in the foyer of her apartment house; she gives him a hot meal, then a place on the floor to sleep by her radiator, then she offers herself. She falls in love, giving him new life, clothes, a place to live. When he grouses that he must bar hop while she uses the flat for her work, she finds them a larger flat. He grows restless, seducing a manicurist and pressing her to prostitution. He's arrested for procuring, so Marie must decide what to do; he, too, must face the consequences of his choices.

Reviews
jihelef

The cinema of Blier will never age, like the smile of Mona Lisa. Vinci put on the canvas the secrecy of the heart of this woman, and, in "Mon Homme", there is the same shamelessness, Bertrand Blier expose his characters and strips until their hearts... There is tenderness, all the tenderness of the world, as in the "Voyage to the end of the night" of Louis Ferdinand Céline. It is a black film, a pink film... The setting in scene is splendid and the images are extremely neat, splendid. This film is an explosive mixture of beauty, tenderness, shamelessness and emotions :So only a few people can love this movie and can appreciate Blier (not the Blier of "the balls" or "tenue of soirée", of course...)

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mob61uk

As usual with a Blier film, the narrative is elliptical and challenging. In this study of the relationships between the sexes, Blier employs his considerable directorial skills in a bleakly funny "story" that follows the happy prostitute Marie, who befriends a tramp who later becomes her pimp. The film constantly challenges the male and female stereotypes, though some of the depictions of women in the film do raise the suspicion of misogyny on the director's part. However, a male character's apology to "all women" - made straight to camera at the very last moment of the film - seems to suggest that he is being deliberately provocative. I will need to see the film again to make up my mind.I will say, though, that this movie is well worth watching. It's inventive, clever, funny, and just great cinema.

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George Parker

"My Man" is an artsy, fatalistic drama done in the typical French the-ecstacy-is-in-the-agony style. Telling a peculiar, quirky, melancholy story of a neurotic prostitute's encounters with men in an apparently futile attempt to bring meaning into her life the story overlooks obvious alternatives at every turn and meanders into dark self-deprecating blind alleys. Nonetheless, this strange drama is slick, well crafted, and worth a look by those who are into unusual psychodramas.

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raymond-15

A strange mixture of a film which involves pimps,prostitution and whoring as a profession and way of life. Basically a comedy it does put some serious questions about unemployment and job searching in a world that doesn't seem to care anymore. Beautiful Marie, a hooker, invites a scruffy homeless starving beggar into her luxurious apartment and gives him a meal of lamb stew and red wine and a liberal helping of sex for dessert (Can you believe it?) When Marie grows weary of her life of sex. she approaches Jean-Francois a total stranger and begs him to give her two children ( I ask you!) Individual acting is good but so wasted on a silly script. Handsome Olivier Martinez as Jean-Francois gives the film a nice lift in his too few scenes. I especially liked the "Begging" scene in which he pushes forward against a surging stream of pedestrians. (Some real cinema at last) I must also mention the cuckoo clock scene. When the beggar (who is trained as a pimp) is released from jail he is approached by a sex-hungry woman who takes him to her home for coffee. In her kitchen he is startled by her cuckoo clock which he promptly smashes to pieces. Now...is this supposed to be exciting cinema? The French can do better than this!!!

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