Untitled Document

Uranus

a film by Claude Berri

from a novel by Marcel Aymé

On the meta-level, this film deals with the existence of Good and Evil in the world, an on going debate in French literature. From Antiquity to Modern Times, baffled by the presence of evil among men, philosophers have attempted to rationalize its existence.

Some, like the Christians and other religious groups, have declared that man was born helplessly bad and needed God to be redeemed: This is the myth of the original sin.
Others, like Jean Jacques Rousseau, declared that men were born innocent and virtuous, and were corrupted by life in society.
Others like leibniz, a Seventeenth century German philosopher, thought that the presence of evil on earth was part of a larger pre-established harmony unvisible to man's myopic eye. Voltaire, an Eighteenth century French philosopher, wrote his best work "Candide" to ridicule such a theory.

"The good"

In the film the philosopher is Vatrin. He observes the chaos around him and tries to make the best of it. True heir of Rousseau, he looks to nature as a comforting source of beauty and pleasure. He is the Pangloss of "Candide" whose optimism remains unastound in spite of personal misfortunes. He tries to see the sunny side of every event: (His wife made him cuckold but one night while she was out with her lover, the city was devastated by bombs: she died and althought his house was destroyed, he remained miraculously alive.)

True to the ancient philosophers he has a manichean perception of the world which he expresses in the metaphore of the two planetes who rules the life of men:

Planete Earth is day time, life, nature, water, butterfies, good elephants and men,
Planete Uranus is the dark side of the night: war, anguish, violence, fear, injustice

"The not-so-bad"

In the middle therenis Archambaud,"l'honnête homme", an educated, decent bourgois, who finds himself on the wrong side of the political fence, and who observes with distress the world falling apart around him. By pure chance he happens to be given an opportunity to save a man. Allthough his humane gesture exposes him and his family, he gives shelter to a man hunted down by the communists. His philosophy is based on doubt. He eternally looks for an answer to the chaos and injustice of his world.

"The ugly"

The Evil man is Monglat, a black market "trafficant" whose deals with the Germans included sales of confiscated goods from French Jews. His wealth makes him untouchable, Part of the new ruling class, he has become the personal friend of influential politicians.

His philosophy is based on denial of love. He is evil less because of his dealings on the black market, thant because he truely enjoy his power over other people "Ca me fait jouir" (litteraly; "It gives me an orgasm"), says he, "to see all the suffering and all the corruption around me..."