The most memorable scene in ‘Mado‘, the 1976 film made by Claude Sautet stars Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider. Piccoli is Simon Leotard, the main hero of the film, a real estate businessman past his early youth and after two failed marriages. Romy Schneider is Hélène, his ex-girlfriend, a woman with problems not very different from those of the actress at that time of his life. The two had been separated for about a year, and the scene of their meeting, in which they relive their feelings of affection but also the incompatibilities that had prevented them from continuing together, is beautiful. However, this scene that many will remember is very little related to the rest of the film. It is at most a counterpoint to the hero’s sentimental life. As for Hélène, the spectators will meet her again only in a short scene, towards the end. This lack of connection to the rest of the narrative is one of the symptoms of a film that brings together many very good actors to bring to the screen a love story at a later age combined with a plot of corruption, a film that seems to develop in too many directions without deciding which of them is the most significant.
The relationships between the generations are interesting and somewhat strange in this film. Pierre (played by Jacques Dutronc) and Mado belong to the generation of those who took to the streets in 1968, but the plot is taking place a few years after the student riots. Now they have to adjust to life and earn a living in more or less honorable ways. Pierre is Leotard’s accountant, while Mado is his young mistress who has similar relationships with several men at the same time. Society seems to accept without problems social relations in which wives mingle with young mistresses, and the generation of businessmen work side by side with young people in more or less legal businesses. The complication occurs when the middle-aged man seems to fall in love with the young woman who fascinates everyone around her. Late love or an extension of the spirit of ownership in the romantic realm? All these sentimental intrigues are combined with an intrigue of corruption and blackmail. Leotard tries to be different, sensitive in his sentimental life and fair in business, but is this possible in the world where the heroes live?
Two reasons make watching this film an interesting experience, even 46 years after its release. Michel Piccoli creates one of his solid roles at a peak period of his career. His magnetism makes his relationship with Mado credible despite his age difference. Italian actress Ottavia Piccolo fits well into a role in which Catherine Deneuve could have been cast about ten years earlier. Jacques Dutronc has a fairly extensive role but which does not give him enough opportunities to develop the character. Romy Schneider is excellent, but she has practically only one scene in the film. Nathalie Baye also appears, in one of her first more consistent role on screen, a prelude to the beautiful career that was to follow. Claude Sautet‘s qualities as a film narrator (both as a director and as a co-writer) are the second argument for the quality of this film. Sautet knows how to alternate intimate scenes with the thriller intrigue, and adds to the end a scene that wants to be symbolic, throwing his heroes after a steamy party in the mud, Fellini style. Even if it’s not one of the director’s best films, ‘Mado‘ is worth watching or rewatching.