Monsieur & Madame Adelman is a story directed by the French director Nicolas Bedos that portraits a relationship between Victor and Sarah. Released in 2017, this storytelling is the living example of how behind every successful man is a strong woman.
There are many factors that make this movie, in my opinion, an example of a perfect storytelling.
In the first place, the decision of dividing the key moments of the story in chapters gives a structure to the complex and unbalanced marriage between the characters.
This film-making decision allows the viewer to have a clear understanding of the relationship and gives them the privilege to be able to announce the specific moments when the marriage of the main characters starts to reveal as unhealthy. This invasion of the intimate moments of Sarah and Victor, and the ruining of the typical French Cinematic Love, turns this movie into, almost, non-fiction.
Another reason that makes this cinematic piece so extraordinary is the game that the Director plays with the viewer. While peeking into the intimate raw moments of the couple, Bedos starts giving the viewer small hints that make the viewer struggle to find who is the "villain" of the story. With a constant feeling that there is something the director is, consciously, hiding from the watcher, the last scene of the movie reveals an unexpected ending that turns out to be the punchline of the little tricks Bedos was playing with the viewer.
The irony and sophisticated comedy that fills this movie is also an important detail to mention. With a clear influence of Woody Allen, Victor gets revealed as a fragile masculine figure with a writer's block set to failure, yet completely naive about his own insignificance. The strong charisma of Sarah, that contradicts her husband in a clear way, gets to be silent for the whole relation, as she lives on Victor's shadow.
Monsieur & Madame Adelman is a beautiful and challenging story that proves that behind every successful man is a strong woman - which Sarah sure is.
There are many factors that make this movie, in my opinion, an example of a perfect storytelling.
In the first place, the decision of dividing the key moments of the story in chapters gives a structure to the complex and unbalanced marriage between the characters.
This film-making decision allows the viewer to have a clear understanding of the relationship and gives them the privilege to be able to announce the specific moments when the marriage of the main characters starts to reveal as unhealthy. This invasion of the intimate moments of Sarah and Victor, and the ruining of the typical French Cinematic Love, turns this movie into, almost, non-fiction.
Another reason that makes this cinematic piece so extraordinary is the game that the Director plays with the viewer. While peeking into the intimate raw moments of the couple, Bedos starts giving the viewer small hints that make the viewer struggle to find who is the "villain" of the story. With a constant feeling that there is something the director is, consciously, hiding from the watcher, the last scene of the movie reveals an unexpected ending that turns out to be the punchline of the little tricks Bedos was playing with the viewer.
The irony and sophisticated comedy that fills this movie is also an important detail to mention. With a clear influence of Woody Allen, Victor gets revealed as a fragile masculine figure with a writer's block set to failure, yet completely naive about his own insignificance. The strong charisma of Sarah, that contradicts her husband in a clear way, gets to be silent for the whole relation, as she lives on Victor's shadow.
Monsieur & Madame Adelman is a beautiful and challenging story that proves that behind every successful man is a strong woman - which Sarah sure is.