L

L'ENNUI (1998) **1/2

Reviewed 10/30/99

Charles Berling plays Martin, a philosophy instructor obsessed with Sophie Guillemin's 17-year old Cecilia in Cédric Kahn's dark comedy L'ennui. 1998 has proven to be the year of sex in French cinema. Along with nymphomania in Le poulpe, exhibitionism in Vénus Beauté (Institut), and graphic sex in Romance, we get the l'amour fou of L'ennui, demonstrating once and for all, sex is to the French what violence is to American cinema. Writer-director Kahn juxtaposes one who thinks way too much with one who doesn't think at all. Guess who suffers the most? Unfortunately L'ennui is a long film, and becomes highly repetitive by the midway point. The film features seven or more fierce, though intentionally unerotic sex scenes, and the rest of the time is spent on Martin quizzing Cecilia about her fidelity to him.