I'm Going Home (Je Rentre a la Maison)

Director: Manoel de Oliveira
France. 2001.
90 minutes. Color.

Cast:

Starring Michel Piccoli, John Malkovich and Catherine Deneuve.

With I'm Going Home, the legendary Manoel de Oliveira, at the age of 93, has created his masterpiece. The critics have already acclaimed it as one of the finest films of the decade. Warm, funny, humane and ultimately heartrending, the film is a remarkable and supremely eloquent statement by a magnificent director.

Gilbert Valence (Michel Piccoli) is a successful theater actor appearing in Eugene Ionesco's Exit the King, when he learns that his wife, daughter and son-in-law have been killed in a car accident. Over time, Valence's life regains a semblance of normalcy - he takes care of his orphaned grandson, strolls the streets of Paris, frequents his favorite cafe and returns to the theater as Prospero in The Tempest. But when an American film director (John Malkovich) offers him a role in an English-language production of James Joyce's Ulysses, Valence struggles to master the dialogue and the rigors of playing a younger man. On the set, suddenly aware of his age and overwhelmed by grief, he quietly says "I'm going home." Michel Piccoli is majestic in the role of Valence - he is proud, self-assured, and amused by the world, while still vulnerable to life's tragedies.

Bonus Features

Commentary by Richard Peña, Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

A filmed interview with director Manoel de Oliveira

Theatrical Trailer

Reviews

"Old age doesn't automatically confer wisdom and artistic profundity. But when it does, as in the case of the Portuguese-born, Paris-based director Manoel de Oliveira, who is still making movies at 92, what can emerge is a remarkable mixture of appreciation and sadness, colored with an implacable, clear-eyed awareness of looming extinction ... Visually, I'm Going Home is an ode to Paris and to life ... Avoiding even a hint of morbidity or of sentimentality, I'm Going Home gives you the steady pulse of life in a beautiful city viewed through the eyes of a character who, in spite of tragic loss and increasing decrepitude, knows in his bones that he is one of the luckiest men alive." - Stephen Holden, New York Times

One of the Ten Best Films of the Year - Manohla Dargis, L.A. Weekly

"Bringing the lightest touches of humor to a contemporary tale set in Paris, Portuguese master and perennial Cannes favorite Manoel de Oliveira serves a thoroughly tasty morsel to the refined palates of cinephiles... One of the most accessible films in Oliveira's recent repertoire..." - Deborah Young, Variety

"A precious and finely cut diamond, magnificent to behold in its sparkling beauty yet in reality it's one tough rock... Adventurous moviegoers who give themselves up to its subtle, persuasive charms are in for a treat ... In its comic moments, in the actor's routine at the bar and being made younger by makeup artists, the film is pricelessly funny..." - Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter