synopsis:

A lonely computer programmer reflects on the empty meaningless of his loveless, solitary existence. Since his partner walked out on him two years ago, he does nothing at weekends and regards his work as a monotonous chore. the love life of 'Our Hero' has remained dormant for several years. He hates his job, hates his life and spends his weekends sitting glumly in his kitchen. The only thing that saves him from a complete breakdown is the knowledge that there are others like him as mundane and socially inept. Together with co-worker Raphael Tisserand, Our Hero takes to the disco dance floor and attempts to rekindle his extinct libido.

This character spends his time drifting between melancholia and suicidal despondency whilst pondering on the mysteries of quantum mechanics, sexual-economic theory and existentialist philosophy.

Our hero in this gloriously dark piece is a depressed, cynical, sexually obsessed systems engineer moping through life perked up only by the fun he has putting others into a similarly suicidal state. When he is sent on a work trip to train up clients to use his company's software he is forced to travel with the slimy Raphael, an unreconstruted male bursting with such sheer desperation that he is destined never to have success with the women he chases.

On the trip the pair begin to bond in a very loose fashion since our hero openly hates Raphael and Raphael tolerates our hero because he has to in order to feel he has a real friend. He never relents in his mission to proove that life is futile and wonderful incidents like his stress over trying to buy a bed illustrate this perfectly. This man lives to make himself and others unhappy.

Raphael tranforms from the ultimate creep to a tragic figure as we learn more and more about him. Raphael still posesses huge hope for the future despite the indications that nothing is ever going to go right for him, which is only reinforced by his travelling companion who he idealises as a sage on the subject of love and romance on the basis that he has actually managed a relationship in the past.

Realising that he has no future, our hero sinks deeper and deeper into depression.

about this movie:

Based on the novel by michel houellebecq, This film, starring José Garcia, Alain Gullio, Phillippe Harel, Catherine Mouchet, Cécile Reigher, Marie-Charlotte Leclaire and Philippe Agael, has a blackly glossy look with grotty flats and gloomy weather setting the mood. Both Harel's acting and direction are excellent and his choice of source material seems to suit his eclectic tastes perfectly. his pure bitterness is fantastically bleak and raw. This is a very disposessed look at life for a single man in the modern world.