Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble (1972) DVD

Rare is the film in movie-history that can announce the entire movement of it's 'plot' with its title alone. But Pialat's second feature, Nous Ne Viellirons Pas Ensemble does exactly that, encapsulating all the turmoil, and the final end-point, of a couple who among themselves once made a commitment - and living together will come to make another one yet.

Jean (Jeane Yanne, of Godard's Weekend) and Catherine (Marlene Jobert, of Godard's Masculin Feminin) are the couple whose every move charts an advancement deeper into an emotional warzone. Theirs is the classic and the tragic case of an emotional abuse centered around a perplexing, but powerful, interdependency. At last the point arrives that determines the relationship, with all its weekend holidays, its apologies and submissions, can go no further - and, in a final shot of genius, Pialat discloses all the ways in which the future might be at once liberated, and enslaved, by the past.

Based on a novel by Pialat himself, and on the trauma of his own personal life in the years leading up to the film,Nous Ne Viellirons Pas Ensemble was a smash-hit at the time of its release - and yet is arguably one of the most upsetting films ever made.