The 78th Cannes Film Festival saw the premiere of Pierre Richard’s film L’Homme qui a vu l’Homme qui a vu l’Ours, which literally means “The Man Who Saw a Bear Who Saw a Man.” However, this expression is an idiom, close in meaning to the Russian expression "Heard the ringing, but does not know where it is." In this title lies the deep meaning of the new work of the great actor and director of French cinema.
At the age of 90, Pierre Richard once again took up the directing megaphone, eighteen years after his last production. L’Homme qui a vu l’Homme qui a vu l’Ours is the ninth full-length film and the first in nearly two decades. Filmed in the south of France, in the vicinity of Gruissan, where Richard himself lives, the film became a gentle, fantastic and slightly sad reflection on friendship, time and trust.
For the general public, Richard remains a comedy actor, the hero of the films “Tall Blonde in a Yellow Shoe”, “Toy”, “Umbrella Injection”, “Unlucky” and dozens of other comedies that defined the face of French cinema 70-80-ies. But "L'Homme qui a vu l'Homme qui a vu l'Ours" reminds viewers that Pierre Richard is not only a talented actor, but also a good director, with a distinctive view of the world, making films, raising social and ethical issues.
A slightly eccentric couple of friends: an elderly Gregoire (Pierre Richard) and 19-year-old Michelle (played by Timi-Joy Marbaugh) go about their normal daily activities when they learn that a bear named Shadow has escaped from the circus.
Of course, a bear walking quietly in the French outback is a metaphor. A metaphor for memories, fears, dreams, and even the very meaning of life, elusive and elusive. It is around this “bear”, which friends regularly see, but cannot catch the police, that the narrative is built – on the thin line between reality and fantasy, youth and old age, past and present.
The film does not aim to be a loud manifesto or avant-garde provocation. It is like a clear day in the middle of autumn: warm, reserved and full of light, but a little sad. The camera is slow, the dialogue is laconic.
Coupled with young actor Marbo, Richard creates a rare on-screen chemistry of generations. Their friendship is a storyline that shows that age recedes before sincerity and vulnerability becomes strength.
This film is not just a new work of a veteran screen. This is an homage to himself, to the cinema, to the audience who grew up with his heroes. Pierre Richard confesses his love for naivety, for the magic that can be born when an old man and a teenager walk down a path where perhaps a bear is hiding... or not hiding.
78 The Cannes Film Festival gave this film exactly the form of screening it deserves - special screening. Because "The Man Who Saw the Bear Who Saw the Man" is not a loud comeback, but a quiet reminder: sometimes fairy tales are truer than life.
And if you ask if there is a bear, the answer is as poetic as a Pierre Richard film: a man who saw a man who saw a bear definitely exists. And he still believes in miracles.(c)🙏
