A discovery. The disappearance of Jean-Jacques Beineix gave us the opportunity to review some of the films of this French director who leaves behind an undeservedly short filmography. His most famous films were made in the 1980’s – ‘Diva‘, ‘Betty Blue‘. ‘IP5: L’ile aux pachydermes‘ (English title ‘IP5: The Island of Pachyderms‘), released on screens in 1992, was received with critical disdain. The audiences were more generous, but another event marked the fate of the film, and with it, perhaps, Beineix‘s career. Yves Montand, the huge actor (and singer, but in this film he does not sing) died of a heart attack a few days after the end of filming, in November 1991. Spectators, perhaps also influenced by press articles, linked the death of this beloved actor the intense stress of the filming. In the movie, Leon Marcel, the old tramp played by Yves Montand, has a similar death. Life and film met once again, in a tragic coincidence.
‘IP5‘ proposes two love stories in ‘road movie’ packaging. Tony (Olivier Martinez) is a young man from the suburbs who deals with street art and petty theft together with his friend Jockey, a pre-teen boy of African descent. When the boy’s father has a medical incident, the nurse who comes to help him is Gloria (Géraldine Pailhas), a beautiful and serious girl with whom Tony falls in love on the spot. She does not seem interested in the advances of the seemingly good-for-nothing young man and she leaves for Toulouse a few days after. The two boys set off in her search, on a journey through the roads and through the forests of France, the stages of the journey being marked by stolen cars. On the way, they meet Leon Marcel (Yves Montand), a mysterious character, half tramp, half magician, and who is himself in search of a woman he broke up with 40 years ago. The three men of different ages will get to know each other, help each other and learn from each other, and the two love stories will end, differently, but in the same geographical place.
To me, this plot seemed well-structured and nicely brought to screen. The film is also beautiful from a visual point of view (cinematography: Jean-François Robin). The comparison with Leos Carax‘s films (with whom Beineix and Luc Besson are associated as forming the representative trio of the ‘cinema du look’ current) is obvious. The friendship between the three heroes makes the connection between the traditional French culture and the pop culture of the ’90s with rap and street art. For Yves Montand, looking back, the film seems like an artistic testament, but this is just a coincidence of destiny – it seemed more symbolic to me that his meeting with the young actors with whom he collaborates perfectly. What can I say about Jean-Jacques Beineix? His ambitions seemed great. Even the title of the film (‘IP5‘, ie his 5th film) indicates that he was preparing for a long-breath cycle. He directed only one feature film after that, in 2001, and none in the last two decades of his life. Did the tragedy ofYves Montand‘s death at the end of the filming for ‘IP5‘ mark him so strongly? Or was it about refusing artistic compromises in his relations with producers? We will probably never know, but this film is a testimony to an undeniable talent which, unfortunately, went largely wasted.