La Tête Contre les Murs is an odd mixture of film genres. It begins with our hero Gérane riding his motorbike across wasteland on the outskirts of Paris. He seems to be rebel without a cause, two thirds James Dean and one third Marlon Brando. But, we learn, he's a twenty-five year old who refuses to settle down to bourgeois french life. There's a strange "decadent" scene on a river boat where the middle classes throw off the restrictions of everyday life and dance the Charleston. Gérane needs money to make good on gambling debts and is caught stealing from his father's desk. Held at gunpoint by his father (they don't get on) he is committed to a psychiatric hospital/lunatic asylum. The rest of the film deals with his life at the hospital and his attempts to escape.
The early part of the film is now discarded except for the visits of Stéphanie who Gérane met in the opening scene and who now seems inexplicably attached to him. The film takes a cursory interest in the mental state of Gérane and whether he's actually ill. It contrasts two psychiatric methods, humane and inhumane, mostly through tired dialogue between two doctors, but isn't quite a searing indictment of mental health treatment. It seems to be going to talk about patriarchy and social repression but doesn't really get anywhere with that either. The film is confused and sometimes dull, but it has a couple of redeeming features.
Although it is difficult to believe this rather flat, grey film was shot by Schüfftan, it is occasionally visually striking. An ambulance drives out from an avenue of trees whose foliage looks like a huge heart in the twilight. In a billiard hall the punters watch in an agony of expectation as a ball rolls ,endlessly it seems, around the holes on a roulette table. These visual flourishes are emphasised by odd clashing musical accompaniment from Maurice Jarre. Often the music is loud and intrusively in opposition to the content of a scene. It often expresses dread through clangs and drones. There is jaunty piano in the depths of the night and twangy banjo at a funeral. This gives La Tête Contre les Murs the atmosphere of Hammer Horror film at times,the sense that the ordinary conceals some disturbing unknown. Unfortunately this is not enough to rescue a film that doesn't seem to know what it's purpose is and which at times is very clumsily put together.
The early part of the film is now discarded except for the visits of Stéphanie who Gérane met in the opening scene and who now seems inexplicably attached to him. The film takes a cursory interest in the mental state of Gérane and whether he's actually ill. It contrasts two psychiatric methods, humane and inhumane, mostly through tired dialogue between two doctors, but isn't quite a searing indictment of mental health treatment. It seems to be going to talk about patriarchy and social repression but doesn't really get anywhere with that either. The film is confused and sometimes dull, but it has a couple of redeeming features.
Although it is difficult to believe this rather flat, grey film was shot by Schüfftan, it is occasionally visually striking. An ambulance drives out from an avenue of trees whose foliage looks like a huge heart in the twilight. In a billiard hall the punters watch in an agony of expectation as a ball rolls ,endlessly it seems, around the holes on a roulette table. These visual flourishes are emphasised by odd clashing musical accompaniment from Maurice Jarre. Often the music is loud and intrusively in opposition to the content of a scene. It often expresses dread through clangs and drones. There is jaunty piano in the depths of the night and twangy banjo at a funeral. This gives La Tête Contre les Murs the atmosphere of Hammer Horror film at times,the sense that the ordinary conceals some disturbing unknown. Unfortunately this is not enough to rescue a film that doesn't seem to know what it's purpose is and which at times is very clumsily put together.