Photo: Michel Piccoli as Gilbert Valence and Jean Koeltgen as Serge in Manoel de Oliveira's I'm Going Home
Manoel de Oliveira's I'm Going Home might have made a fitting swan song for the 93-year-old director if he weren't still so spry; unlike his main character, the filmmaker obviously has more work to do. After a performance in Ionesco's Exit the King, Gilbert Valence (the great Michel Piccoli) discovers that his entire family (minus his grandson) has been killed in a car crash. He is an aging actor, friendly to his admirers (he is frequently seen signing autographs) and careful when making important choices. Gilbert's decision-making (to buy or not to buy a pair of shoes, to take or decline a role in an action-packed American film) suggests a willingness to overcome his overwhelming sense of loss, except he doesn't know how. Though he takes risks, he discovers that comfort lies in that which is familiar. Too young for a role in the aforementioned action film and too old for the part of Buck Mulligan in a screen adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses (directed by John Malkovich's John Crawford), Gilbert not only becomes a victim of typecasting but a slave to his mortality.
Manoel de Oliveira's I'm Going Home might have made a fitting swan song for the 93-year-old director if he weren't still so spry; unlike his main character, the filmmaker obviously has more work to do. After a performance in Ionesco's Exit the King, Gilbert Valence (the great Michel Piccoli) discovers that his entire family (minus his grandson) has been killed in a car crash. He is an aging actor, friendly to his admirers (he is frequently seen signing autographs) and careful when making important choices. Gilbert's decision-making (to buy or not to buy a pair of shoes, to take or decline a role in an action-packed American film) suggests a willingness to overcome his overwhelming sense of loss, except he doesn't know how. Though he takes risks, he discovers that comfort lies in that which is familiar. Too young for a role in the aforementioned action film and too old for the part of Buck Mulligan in a screen adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses (directed by John Malkovich's John Crawford), Gilbert not only becomes a victim of typecasting but a slave to his mortality.
