Le Journal D'Un Suicide
Cast & Crew
Read More
Stanislav Stanojevic
Director
Delphine Seyrig
Interpreter
Sami Frey
Guide
Marie-france Pisier
Anarchist Girl
Sacha Pitoeff
Guard
Roland Bertin
Anarchist
Film Details
Also Known As
Diary of a Suicide, Journal D'Un Suicide
Genre
Drama
Release Date
1972
Distribution Company
Davis Films
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 30m
Synopsis
Director
Stanislav Stanojevic
Director
Film Details
Also Known As
Diary of a Suicide, Journal D'Un Suicide
Genre
Drama
Release Date
1972
Distribution Company
Davis Films
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 30m
Articles
Diary of a Suicide - DIARY OF A SUICIDE - A Rarely Seen French Avant-Garde Feature from 1973
Diary of a Suicide plays very much like a brief episode in a Buñuel film, but padded to feature length and communicating little beyond a vague nihilism. Busy actor Sami Frey is a handsome young man on a pleasure cruise on the east coast of Spain. He flirts with an attractive fellow passenger (Delphine Seyrig). Neither is given a name. No matter how much the man coaxes, the woman refuses to remove her sunglasses. They visit a church in Barcelona but mostly talk on board ship while watching seagulls.
The smiling woman encourages the young man to entertain her with a beautiful story. He responds with several morbid, interlinked anecdotes. A man (Bernard Haller) stands before a mirror, unable to make himself smile. Another man faces a firing squad. Anarchist lovers (Marie-France Pisier & Roland Bertin) fail to carry out an assassination. Wounded, she wants to die but is given a life sentence. Her jailer (Sacha Pitoëff) cannot sleep because he was brain-damaged in a war. That infirmity allows him to watch his prisoner around the clock. The jailer explains that his mind holds only one memory, of a beautiful woman he once knew. Should he forget her as well, the jailer reasons, his life will no longer have a purpose.
The female cruise passenger seems pleased by the young man's efforts to seduce her, but she has withheld a wicked surprise.
Unfortunately, Diary of a Suicide is a weak and uninvolving slice of mannered filmmaking. Scenes with the two main actors seem arbitrary and haphazard. Many of their encounters are staged against blank walls, and some dialogue scenes avoid showing lips, as in the cheapest of post-dubbed low-budget productions. Except for a few color inserts, all of the shipboard scenes are in B&W. Some of the young man's stories are tinted in various hues. The compositions are rarely framed wider than a medium shot, producing a feeling of claustrophobia.
With its nameless lovers and stories within stories, director Stanojevic's puzzle picture is more than a little reminiscent of Alan Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad, minus that film's elegance and compelling dreamlike surface. Little tension develops between the shipboard reality and the man's bizarre stories. A melancholy singer performing aboard the ship appears to represent the mystery woman of the jailer's tale. The singer's actor-husband dresses similarly to the jailer, and carries out the jailer's suicide as part of his act. With the exception of Sacha Pitoëff's morose jailer, none of the story characters connect with the audience. The gaunt, sad jailer truly looks like a man haunted by his loss of memory.
Stanislav Stanojevic's main coup for his first film is the gathering of an impressive cast. He's secured the services of Seyrig and Pitoëff, two of the stars of Last Year at Marienbad. Sami Frey and Marie-France Pisier have appeared in films by Agnès Varda, Georges Franju, William Klein, Jean-Luc Godard, H.G. Clouzot, François Truffaut, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Luis Buñuel and Jacques Rivette.
Director Stanojevic made two more features blending political themes with aspects of the fantastic. 1979's Subversion is about a country ruled by a paralyzed, blind president and his corrupt daughter. Diary of a Suicide has images of soldiers used as cannon fodder and anarchists dedicated to an assassination, but makes no real political statement. Its final twist is indeed a surprise, but an almost pointless one.
Facets Video's DVD of Diary of a Suicide is an acceptable flat transfer with English subtitles. For an extra we're given a lengthy video interview with the director. Stanojevic doesn't discuss Diary at length, preferring to give an unfocused talk about film funding and filmmaking in general.
For more information about Diary of a Suicide, visit Facets Multi-Media. To order Diary of a Suicide, go to TCM Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
Diary of a Suicide - DIARY OF A SUICIDE - A Rarely Seen French Avant-Garde Feature from 1973
In his interview on Facet Video's DVD of Diary of a Suicide
(Le journal d'un suicidé), Serbian director Stanislav
Stanojevic mentions a French arts body that dispenses funds for
creative filmmaking, and remarks that Luis Buñuel
received more money than he did! This early 70s art film depends
for its reputation on a quote by François Truffaut, who
may have not seen the film, but had high praise for its
screenplay.
Diary of a Suicide plays very much like a brief episode
in a Buñuel film, but padded to feature length and
communicating little beyond a vague nihilism. Busy actor Sami
Frey is a handsome young man on a pleasure cruise on the east
coast of Spain. He flirts with an attractive fellow passenger
(Delphine Seyrig). Neither is given a name. No matter how much
the man coaxes, the woman refuses to remove her sunglasses. They
visit a church in Barcelona but mostly talk on board ship while
watching seagulls.
The smiling woman encourages the young man to entertain her with
a beautiful story. He responds with several morbid, interlinked
anecdotes. A man (Bernard Haller) stands before a mirror, unable
to make himself smile. Another man faces a firing squad.
Anarchist lovers (Marie-France Pisier & Roland Bertin) fail to
carry out an assassination. Wounded, she wants to die but is
given a life sentence. Her jailer (Sacha Pitoëff) cannot
sleep because he was brain-damaged in a war. That infirmity
allows him to watch his prisoner around the clock. The jailer
explains that his mind holds only one memory, of a beautiful
woman he once knew. Should he forget her as well, the jailer
reasons, his life will no longer have a purpose.
The female cruise passenger seems pleased by the young man's
efforts to seduce her, but she has withheld a wicked surprise.
Unfortunately, Diary of a Suicide is a weak and
uninvolving slice of mannered filmmaking. Scenes with the two
main actors seem arbitrary and haphazard. Many of their
encounters are staged against blank walls, and some dialogue
scenes avoid showing lips, as in the cheapest of post-dubbed
low-budget productions. Except for a few color inserts, all of
the shipboard scenes are in B&W. Some of the young man's stories
are tinted in various hues. The compositions are rarely framed
wider than a medium shot, producing a feeling of claustrophobia.
With its nameless lovers and stories within stories, director
Stanojevic's puzzle picture is more than a little reminiscent of
Alan Resnais' Last Year
at Marienbad, minus that film's elegance and compelling
dreamlike surface. Little tension develops between the shipboard
reality and the man's bizarre stories. A melancholy singer
performing aboard the ship appears to represent the mystery
woman of the jailer's tale. The singer's actor-husband dresses
similarly to the jailer, and carries out the jailer's suicide as
part of his act. With the exception of Sacha Pitoëff's
morose jailer, none of the story characters connect with the
audience. The gaunt, sad jailer truly looks like a man haunted
by his loss of memory.
Stanislav Stanojevic's main coup for his first film is the
gathering of an impressive cast. He's secured the services of
Seyrig and Pitoëff, two of the stars of Last Year at
Marienbad. Sami Frey and Marie-France Pisier have appeared
in films by Agnès Varda, Georges Franju, William Klein,
Jean-Luc Godard, H.G. Clouzot, François Truffaut, Alain
Robbe-Grillet, Luis Buñuel and Jacques Rivette.
Director Stanojevic made two more features blending political
themes with aspects of the fantastic. 1979's Subversion
is about a country ruled by a paralyzed, blind president and his
corrupt daughter. Diary of a Suicide has images of
soldiers used as cannon fodder and anarchists dedicated to an
assassination, but makes no real political statement. Its final
twist is indeed a surprise, but an almost pointless one.
Facets Video's DVD of Diary of a Suicide is an acceptable
flat transfer with English subtitles. For an extra we're given a
lengthy video interview with the director. Stanojevic doesn't
discuss Diary at length, preferring to give an unfocused
talk about film funding and filmmaking in general.
For more information about Diary of a Suicide, visit Facets Multi-Media. To order
Diary of a Suicide, go to
TCM
Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1972
Released in United States 1972