History Film / MonOncleDAmerique

''Mon Oncle d'Amerique'' is a 1980 film from France directed by Creator/AlainResnais, starring Creator/GerardDepardieu, Nicole Garcia, and Roger Pierre.

* AtTheOperaTonight: Jean and his wife attend a theatre play. Janine plays the main role. In the end, Jean wishes to congratulate her and so he meets her future mistress.

* BungledSuicide: René tries to hang himself but is saved when his landlady enters his room to tell him that his wife called. Laborit explains suicide as a nervous system directing its aggression inward when it can't direct it anywhere else.

* ForegoneConclusion: The general presentation of the three main characters gives reveals some important plot points: René will leave his father's farm and have a successful carreer in the textile industry; Jean will not work very long for the radio; Janine will meet an powerful man, then will work as a stylist...

* HumansAreBastards: Laborit demonstrates scientifically that human actions always aim at dominating others. Violence is only prevented thanks to social conditioning. The actions of the protagonists are not heroic: Jean makes fun of the guy that he has taken off the air, he abandons his wife and children for his mistress, and finally he drops his mistress. Janine does not hesitate to take her friend's role in the theatre play, she also charms a married man. René is quite nice with other people. The film explains that this is why he attempts suicide.
* HyperlinkStory: There is not a single main character, but three. Their storylines seem unrelated at first, but they are drawn together over the course of the film (Janine becomes Jean's mistress, then Janine becomes René's colleague). Moreover, they are all used as illustrations of Laborit's scientific theories.

* TheMistress: Janine becomes Jean's mistress.

* NiceMeanAndInBetween: {{Downplayed|Trope}}, because René is not very nice and Jean is not very mean, but Jean is the meanest character: he makes fun of the guy that he has taken off the air, he abandons his wife and children for his mistress, and finally he drops his mistress. Janine is in between: she does not hesitate to take her friend's role in the theatre play, she charms a married man. René is quite nice with other people: the meanest thing he does is losing his temper when he is under pressure (for example, he shouts at his wife when he has to move to Cholet to keep his job).

* OnceMoreWithClarity: Some scenes with animals are showed two times (for example the wild boar, the crab, the puppy, the turtle). The first time, they seem to be part of a wildlife documentary unrelated to the main characters. The second time, the images are showed in a longer sequence that links them with the characters (the wild boar is hunted by Jean and Janine runs into it when she is looking for him, the crab is caught by Jean and his grandfather on the beach of the island, the puppy was René's pet when he was a child, the turtle was turned upside down by Jean when he was a child).
* ReassignedToAntarctica: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Part of René's career slide is when the management of his textile company reassigns him to a run-down factory out in the boonies. He is unhappy with it because it is far away from where he lives, but he is given more responsability and a higher pay.

* TheRunaway: Janine runs away from her home because her parents does not want her to be an actress.

* {{Shoutout}}: [[StockFootage Stock footages]] of classic French film are inserted in the main story: ''Mayerling'' (1936), ''Ruy Blas'' (1947), ''Pleins feux sur Stanislas'' (1965), ''La Belle Équipe'' (1936), and ''Les Grandes Familles'' (1958).
* ShowWithinAShow: Parts of the theatre play of Janine are showed.

* TitleDrop: No one actually has an American uncle. It's a stock French saying about imaginary people that will solve all your problems.

* YouAllShareMyStory: The storylines of the three main characters seem unrelated at first, but they are drawn together over the course of the film (Janine becomes Jean's mistress, then Janine becomes René's colleague).

* StockFootage: Each of the three main characters is matched with a star of classic French cinema: Janine with Creator/JeanMarais, Jean with Danielle Darrieux, and René with Creator/JeanGabin. Their moods are often illustrated with stock footage clips from performances by those stars.

* YouAllShareMyStory: The storylines of the three main characters seem unrelated at first, but they are drawn together over the course of the film (Janine becomes Jean's mistress, then Janine becomes René's colleague).

* HumansAreBastards: Laborit demonstrates scientifically that human actions always aim at dominating others. Violence is only prevented thanks to social conditioning. The actions of the protagonists are not heroic: Jean makes fun of the guy that he has taken off the air, he abandons his wife and children for his mistress, and finally he drops his mistress. Janine does not hesitate to take her friend's role in the theatre play, she also seduces a married man. René is quite nice with other people. The film explains that this is why he attempts suicide.

* NiceMeanAndInBetween: {{Downplayed|Trope}}, because René is not very nice and Jean is not very mean, but Jean is the meanest character: he makes fun of the guy that he has taken off the air, he abandons his wife and children for his mistress, and finally he drops his mistress. Janine is in between: she does not hesitate to take her friend's role in the theatre play, she seduces a married man. René is quite nice with other people: the meanest thing he does is losing his temper when he is under pressure (for example, he shouts at his wife when he has to move to Cholet to keep his job).