The Moustache

One morning Marc stands in the bathroom and makes a decision: he will shave off the moustache he has worn for years. He shaves it. He waits for his wife Agnès to notice. She says nothing. Then he asks, and Agnès is astonished: she says he never had a moustache. His colleagues say the same. Marc looks at old photographs; there is no moustache in those either. He takes it for a joke. Then other things start slipping: whether a holiday happened, whether his father died. Marc gets on a plane and goes to Hong Kong. Emmanuel Carrère directs; the source is his own novel. Vincent Lindon plays Marc and Emmanuelle Devos plays Agnès. It is a French production. It is Carrère's first feature as director; he is known as a writer. The music is taken from a violin concerto by Philip Glass and a single piece is used across almost the whole film. The narrative brings no explanation; no illness is diagnosed and no conspiracy comes to light. The matter it treats is that reality is held in common; what Marc remembers is confirmed by nobody, and that is enough. Its last section differs from the novel; Carrère changed the ending for the screen. Vincent Lindon's performance carries the picture and the character shows a quiet resolve rather than panic. Its limit is resolution; the narrative answers none of its questions and that will feel incomplete to some. Who it is for: viewers who like psychological thrillers and narratives that explain nothing. Who it is not for: it gives no answers, the pace is slow, and the ending uncertain.