Robust

Gérard Depardieu and Déborah Lukumuena make a perfect odd couple as a belligerent movie star and the minder he hires.

Déborah Lukumuena and Gérard Depardieu

Back in 2010 Gérard Depardieu gave one of the best performances of his later years in a delightful film entitled My Afternoons with Marguerite. Brilliant as he was in it, the film was one which found him sharing the limelight with the late Gisèle Casadesus, then 92-years-old. Now Depardieu finds another unexpected and delightful partner in Déborah Lukumuena best known so far for her work in the 2015 film Divines released in many countries including the USA but not in the UK. She is so good in Robust that it is difficult to imagine that it is other than her best performance to date and her partnership with Depardieu, also on very fine form, is a joy.

Robust, a first feature, was directed by Constance Mayer and written by her in collaboration with Marcia Romano. She must take some of the credit for the pitch perfect acting by her two leading players but, despite the huge pleasure that it gives, Robust is a film let down by a screenplay which in narrative terms is sadly disjointed. The central situation is clear enough being based on the bond of friendship that develops between Depardieu’s Georges, an aging actor known to be troublesome, and Lukumuena’s Aïssa. The latter takes over the role with Georges that has been established by Lalou (Steve Tientcheu). Officially that post had been that of security guard, but Lalou has also become the man who looks after the elderly actor and acts as his driver, part-time carer, advisor and assistant. When Lalou is called away, the good hearted Aïssa takes over all of these duties. She even helps Georges to learn his lines for his next film venture, a period drama which will require him to participate in a fencing duel.

Meyer's film never goes out of its way to comment on either the similarities of these two or their differences but Aïssa is black while both have adjusted to having outsize bodies. Aïssa recognises the actor’s loneliness and is not put out by his worries over his health or his irascible manner while she herself faces the knowledge that her white lover, a co-worker named Eddy (Lucas Mortier), is not necessarily to be relied on. Without much elaborate plotting – and, happily, without any suggestion of the relationship between Georges and Aïssa becoming in any way sexual – Robust is a touching portrait of a friendship that comes to be valued by both of them.

Regrettably, the storytelling leaves much to be desired and in more ways than one. When we first see Aïssa we don't know who she is but we are offered quite a long scene in which she participates in women's wrestling. Her place in the story will soon become apparent, but initially we are all at sea and that is typical of the scrappy approach which robs the story of any real sense of flow. So does the introduction of subsidiary characters whose identities are not always clearly established and there is also at times a failure to fill in as much background as one needs. Thus, a young boy named Gabriel, well played by Théodore Le Blanc, suddenly appears in a car being driven by Aïssa and only after that does it emerge that this is the son of Georges whose upcoming visit has been mentioned earlier. But although he is quite young enough to be a grandson (or even a great-grandson!) we learn nothing of his mother and her place in his father’s life.

Furthermore, there is one sequence which in a film that is rightly quiet in tone suddenly takes on a melodramatic feel, while the music score by David Babin is mainly vocal and is again sometimes at odds with the film. In normal circumstances (and despite the appeal of the background scenes dealing with the film in which Georges is due to appear) Robust would suffer from its weaknesses to the point that would render it forgettable. But the quality of the two lead performances and the way in which Depardieu and Lukumuena are so perfectly in balance are such that the film’s failings prove less significant than one would suppose. As a study of two gentle souls (for under the bluster that is what Georges is too) Robust is an object lesson in how two distinguished players perfectly attuned can make a film’s misjudgments relatively unimportant and enable viewers to relish what is at its centre.

Original title: Robuste.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Cast: Gérard Depardieu, Déborah Lukumuena, Lucas Mortier, Megan Northam, Steve Tientcheu, Florence Janas, Théodore Le Blanc, Sébastien Pouderoux, Julie Lesgages, Aminata Sy, François Loriquet.

Dir Constance Meyer, Pro Isabelle Madelaine, Screenplay Constance Meyer with Marcia Romano, Ph Simon Beaufils, Pro Des Julia Lemaire, Ed Anita Roth, Music David Babin, Costumes Carole Chollet.

Dharamsala/Scope Pictures/France 2 Cinéma/Canal+/Ciné+-606 Distribution.
95 mins. France/Belgium. 2021. UK Rel: 22 July 2022. Cert. 15.