Film review: Peter von Kant is a theatrical piece that thrives on its ensemble cast

Isabelle Adjani and Stefan Crepon are both outstanding

Peter von Kant stars Denis Ménochet as the eponymous anti-hero. Picture: Carole Bethuel/FOZ

★★★☆

Peter von Kant (15A) stars Denis Ménochet as the eponymous anti-hero, a narcissistic film director in thrall to his own myth of greatness and desperate to find true love. The opportunity arises when his friend, the fading actress, Sidonie (Isabelle Adjani), introduces the middle-aged Peter to the 23-year-old Amir (Khalil Ben Gharbia), recently arrived in Cologne from Australia. But is Amir all he seems to be, or is Peter yet again mistaking illusion for reality? 

Exactly why François Ozon chose to remake Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) is unclear, but we should be delighted he did: Denis Ménochet is wonderfully tragicomic as the hapless Peter, a man-child who is utterly at the mercy of his monstrous ego as he weeps and wails, snorts coke and quaffs cognac, all the while insisting upon the importance of humility. And yet, as the story progresses, and against all odds, the gross and laughable Peter quietly becomes something of an Everyman, a mass of contradictions who simply craves sincere affection and is prepared to countenance all manner of hypocrisy to secure it. 

But while Ménochet is excellent in the lead, this is very much a theatrical piece (based originally on a play, it takes place entirely in Peter’s apartment) that thrives on its ensemble cast, with Isabelle Adjani and Stefan Crepon both outstanding, the latter in the role of Peter’s long-suffering assistant, Karl.

(cinema release)