The man who wanted to be himself

The main character, Paul Exbain ( Romain Duris ), is an employee of one of the law firms in Paris with a large salary and a beautiful house, a beautiful wife and two little sons. However, the relationship between the spouses is cooling before our eyes. Paul learns that his wife is cheating on him with their mutual acquaintance, the photographer Gregoire Kremer ( Eric Ruf ), who is in a creative crisis.

Paul is going to talk about all this to his opponent. The photographer’s proposal to accept this situation “in a modern way”, that is, without scandals, is almost accepted by seemingly calm Paul, but diving with words leads to a fight during which the lover fatally wounds himself with fragments of a bottle of wine. The main character is shocked and realizes that his prosperous life is already in the past. Since the photographer said on the eve of one of the joint parties that he was going to go on a creative business trip on the order of one of the magazines, Paul has a chance to correct the hopeless situation, since in the near future no one will miss the deceased. He decides to get rid of the body, make fake documents and leave France.

His plan succeeds. And then Paul Exben, under a false name, finds himself in a provincial city in the former Yugoslavia on the Adriatic coast. The main character escaped prison, but lost everything: family, home, home country, the ability to work by profession, the ability to communicate in his native language, finally. But not everything is so bad, Paul returns to the fascination of his life, and takes a series of photographs of local residents and city views. Soon, the Frenchman Bartolomeo ( Niels Arestrup ), who has lived in this city for several decades, meets him, he is the editor of a local newspaper and invites Paul to work with him. Paul meets his assistant Ivana (Branka Katic), a passion flares up between them.

Fields' works are handed to the organizers of regional photo exhibitions. He is noticed and offered the first contract. Paul is confused. After thinking, he agrees, but categorically rejects the possibility of any interview with him or photographing him. The popularity that he had dreamed about since childhood overtakes him so inappropriately. A personal photo exhibition of Paul is being arranged, a major European organizer is interested in him. At this exhibition, Paul is almost recognized by a random person from his Paris past. The protagonist falls into a panic. He leaves the port town in a hurry, burns a car, says goodbye with new love.

He manages to reach people delivering illegal immigrants to Latin America. Having given them the last savings, he gets on board the ship. At night he wakes up from shots. Having made his way to the stern , Paul Exben becomes an eyewitness to the monstrous massacre. Criminals throw something to them disagreeable immigrants at sea. Paul takes pictures of this. However, they notice him and also throw him overboard. Before Fields are seized, he manages to change the film in the camera. One of the crew members dumps an inflatable liferaft into the water. Paul barely gets to him, and helps another surviving immigrant climb.

In the final scene, an immigrant leaves the police station in an Italian city on the Mediterranean coast . His savior - Paul is outside the site. He managed to hide his real name. The immigrant is surrounded by journalists, since he is considered the author of images from the film saved by the Field. The immigrant and Paul are smiling, looking intently into each other's eyes. The immigrant's gaze is full of gratitude.

• Romain Duris - Paul Exben ( Fr. Paul Exben )
• Marina Foix - Sarah Exben
• Niels Arestrup - Bartolomeo
• Branca Katic - Ivana
• Catherine Deneuve - Anne
• Eric Ruf - Gregoire Kremer
• Rachel Berger - Fiona Exben
• Esteban Carvajal - Alegria
• Florence Muller - Clarisse
• Carol Weiss - Annie

The shooting took place on the shores of the Adriatic Sea , in particular in the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro .

The film was nominated for the 36th annual Cesar ceremony (2011): Best Supporting Actor (Niels Arestrup) and Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation (Eric Lartigo).

• “L'Homme qui voulait vivre sa vie” on the Internet Movie Database
• Review, by Philip French in The Observer , July 24, 2011.
• Background article by Michel Guerrin on Antoine d'Agata's photography for the film, in Le Monde , 2 novembre 2010. (fr.)