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Gérard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia, Roger Pierre, Nelly Borgeaud, Pierre Arditi ...( see more  see more... ) , Gérard Darrieu , Philippe Laudenbach , Marie Dubois , Henri Laborit

Following a pair of films (Stavisky, Providence) that were more conventionally narrative than his explosively experimental early works (Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad), French New Wave p...( read more  read more... )ioneer director Alain Resnais began a cycle of films beginning in 1980 (all written by Jean Gruault) that delved deeply into his philosophical and aesthetic concerns again. The first of these was Mon Oncle d'Amerique, starring Gérard Depardieu as one of three middle-class characters undergoing great degrees of personal stress. Presented as a docudrama of sorts with some pulp-fiction qualities, these parallel tales don't really resolve themselves within their own borders but gain another dimension of subjective resolution when Resnais ushers in a real-life scientist to discuss certain kinds of behavioral triggers in humans. The results are actually very satisfying and witty for viewers who can see the overt psychological elements not as a smug commentary on the action but a means of opening the action to a viewer's subconscious experience. Resnais takes the bold step of creating a new kind of filmed story here, and largely succeeds. --Tom Keogh

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9 critics

PG, 2 hrs. 6 min.

Directed by: Alain Resnais

Release Date: December 17, 1980

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DVD Release Date: November 28, 2000

Stats: 62 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (62)

  • hypathio7
    July 3, 2008
    hypathio7
    want to see this because it won best foreign-language film with the NYFC
  • Phonex
    March 17, 2008
    Phonex
    We humans supposedly use only five percent of our brainpower. Filmmakers are similarly timid with the possibilities of the medium. Virtually all directors employ the visual vocabulary established 90 years ago by D.W. Griffith, and the presumption of realism: that those actors are...( read more) these characters. Resnais, in a career spanning a half-century, is not always so constrained. His Last Year at Marienbad had the smart set guessing what was real and what was fantasy?and missing the correct answer that, on screen, everything is a fantasy, literally an optical illusion. Mon oncle d'Amérique, written by Jean Gruault, is a science lesson, given by the biologist Henri Laborit, that is made lucid and entertaining by illustrative skits featuring three characters (Roger-Pierre, Gérard Depardieu, Nicole Garcia) and a lab full of white mice. Laborit's questions about the impact of behavioral codes in inhibiting man?s so-called free will dovetail elegantly with Resnais's and Gruault's mission to overthrow the codes of film behavior. It?s an exemplary experiment, and the highest form of movie fun. by R.C.
  • martinkalwill
    December 21, 2007
    martinkalwill
    An amaizing study about human behaibour. Probably inspired by the ethologist (such as Desmond Morris) the films compare how the characters react and feel, and how does that affect their health; side by side with mouse labs in laberynths and experiments, on situations that are equ...( read more)ivalent to the persons in the story.A very dark and unknown film, but one of the most intresting, alternative and hard to get films Depardieu has ever done
  • expatpaul
    August 12, 2007
    expatpaul
    My American Uncle is a real cinematic oddity combining documentary and drama to fashion something wholly original.

    Heavily narrated, especially at the start of the film, My American Uncle takes a while to get going. But its unique combination of a very human script, solid perfor...( read more)mances and some fascinating insights into human behaviour make this a very rewarding film indeed.

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  • froufrou45
    March 16, 2007
    froufrou45
    Quite weird but still nice done!!
  • himeku
    June 26, 2006
    himeku
    I felt like a mouse.
  • janicklavoie
    May 25, 2006
    janicklavoie
    Le meilleur film de Resnais...à voir et surtout revoir...pour comprendre.

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