The main character of Alain Resnais’ I Want to Go Home, Joey
Wellman, is a veteran American cartoonist (but not one of the top-tier ones,
his work barely celebrated now) in Paris for a convention; his almost estranged
daughter is already there, studying at the Sorbonne and trying to shed her roots,
fixated on getting her thesis on Flaubert to the attention of a public intellectual
(Gerard Depardieu) who however is more interested in the old man. The
cartoonist is played by Adolph Green, much better known as a songwriter than an
actor (I Want to Go Home isn’t a musical, but sometimes seems on the verge
of becoming that); others involved in the project include Jules Feiffer, John
Kander, Linda Lavin, Geraldine Chaplin and John Ashton (at the time widely recognizable
from Beverly Hills Cop and other mainstream movies), with references
ranging from Victor Hugo to Krazy Kat – it’s surely a unique mixture of cultural
coordinates, carrying the sense of a cultural puzzle to be unlocked. This manifests
itself for much of the way as sometimes grating and repetitive conflict (Joey’s
complaining about even the smallest aspect of French culture might profitably
have been pared back at least a little), although ultimately leading to a
rather mysterious transference in which some of the central characters reorient
their affiliations and arrive at reconciliation; the final shot in which Joey’s
temporary new home in the country sprouts into a Disneyland-like castle is the
final assertion of possibility. Ultimately, for all its annoyances, the film
insists that one might find delight even in the most
unlikely locations and interactions, if one is only open to it. And of course,
if that’s not so easy, you can draw on the common ground of cultural
touchstones– those small-town French people may not recognize the most basic
words of English, but they know “Clint Eastwood”!
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