Alain Robbe-Grillet - L'homme qui ment aka The Man Who Lies (1968)

An exercise in duplicitous narration taken to its logical extreme. Nothing the protagonist says about himself or the past can be believed, including his identity: he introduces himself as "Jean Robin", then tells us that he is really "Boris Viasso", and relates the tale of his wartime comrade in the resistance, Jean Robin, who is first portrayed as a hero, then implied to be a traitor. Or was it Viasso himself who was the traitor? Or, since he seems unrecognized in the village, is he merely trying to insinuate himself into the household of three beautiful women: the widow, sister and maid of the late Robin? Robbe-Grillet plays his customary brilliant games with narrative and imagery.









This enigmatic, plodding story concerns a man who may or may not have betrayed a resistance fighter in his hometown during World War II. He has supposedly been shot down by the Nazis and wanders into town. Mourning the death of an unseen comrade, he is taken in by the family of the dead rebel. He engages in a superfluous affair and witnesses the lesbian relationship between the man's sister and a female servant. When passions subside, the family has doubts about the reliability of the man's stories. This avant garde feature leaves the viewer to decide if the downed airman is telling the truth or covering up for his deeds leading to the death of the heroic resistance fighter. (Dan Pavlides)









Dans une forêt, des soldats poursuivent un homme en complet veston. Apparemment blessé ou tué, l’homme s’écroule. Peu de temps après, lorsque tout est redevenu calme, le fugitif se lève et sort de la forêt. Il déclare s’appeler Jean Robin, puis Boris. Il commence un récit perturbé par l’apparition en images mentales de trois jeunes femmes jouant à colin-maillard. Après une halte à l’auberge du village où l’on parle de Jean Robin, héros de la Résistance, Boris parvient à la vaste demeure qu’habitait le disparu. Un véritable labyrinthe le mène à une sorte de débarras où se trouvent les trois joueuses de colin-maillard: Laura, l’épouse de Jean, Sylvia, sa sœur et Maria, la servante. Boris se fait passer pour l’ami de Jean et continue un récit qui varie selon les interlocuteurs...





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