This movie is very frank, so I will be, too: I don't know how I haven't heard of it until now, and only by chance, and I don't know how it isn't more well known. It begins with conventional underpinnings of a man dissatisfied with his life and seeking something beyond his marriage and ho-hum job, and initially comes off as at once very forthright in Paul Vecchiali's direction, marginally cheeky in tone, and discreet and underhanded in laying out the narrative progression. All the while we're treated to rich, flavorful music of original themes, select pop tunes, and even a couple songs that are sung by actors as if this were a musical - and a structure that is kind of brilliant, jumping ahead in time to track these characters over several years. This is especially interesting since it inherently refuses the elucidation of every little detail in these characters' lives along the way, instead letting we viewers take in snapshots at particular moments in the course of a decade and infer what we will, and keeps to the more underhanded ethos of storytelling that showed itself in the first place. And we get all this in a picture that directly touches upon the AIDS crisis as subject matter, one of the earliest to do so, and accordingly, maybe the first in French cinema. I can't say that it's specifically happy, and "enjoyable" feels like an inappropriate word, but 'Encore' is honestly pretty terrific, and I'd be remiss not to give this a strong recommendation for one and all.
My commendations to the hair and makeup artists who did such a fine job of aging these characters over the span of time that the plot covers. The actors themselves are splendid, giving nuanced performances that feel very real and natural; Jean-Louis Rolland stands out most as protagonist Louis, but all others involved are just as excellent. They excel through every mood that the film traipses through, from tension and bitterness to anxiety, from love and yearning to sorrow. I can imagine how the title may have had a hard time making all these feelings be believable had it adopted a more typical construction, but as the jumps in time give us only discrete beats to watch these figures and their story unfold, the shifts weirdly seem more organic. All the while Vecchiali's direction is sharp and practiced, making all the drama be meaningful, and by all means, he penned an absorbing, satisfying narrative that keeps us firmly engaged and attentive. Rounded out with superb production design and art direction, it can't be overstated how solidly this was made in every regard.
And still, most gratifying of all may be that Vecchiali treats queerness very plainly, letting his characters be real, complex people instead of just tropes, stereotypes, or plot devices. He's just as even-handed in broaching the topic of AIDS, having it play its part in the tale without any type of commentary or sensationalism thereon. All the moods that 'Encore' has to convey come across without any sentimentality or dramatic flourish that we expect of even the best of the medium; this really does feel mostly like a realist portraiture of these characters, one scene and one year at a time. Save for that structure there's no singular stroke of genius here, yet that's exactly what makes it so entrancing in the first place. The result, at length, is a picture that sneaks in under the radar and deeply impresses, carrying unanticipated weight and substance and handily beating out expectations. Once more (hah!), I can only reflect in hindsight how surprising it is that this isn't more widely known. The story that it tells, and its way of telling that story, rather do much to help the film stand out from other points of comparison, and as a viewer it's even more rewarding. I'll stop short of saying it's an absolute must-see, but I'm so very pleased with just how good this is; as far as I'm concerned, if you have the chance to watch 'Encore,' this is well worth ninety minutes of anyone's time.
