FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL 2008
Now in its 19th year, this long running film festival, run by Alliance Francaise in conjunction with Palace Cinemas again presents a representative sample of films from contemporary French film-makers through March and April, 2008. This year, there are 34 feature films and 4 documentaries, of which 36 are Australian premieres.
The festival screens in various states. Adelaide (March 27-April 6), Brisbane (March 20-March 30), Canberra (March 20-March 30), Sydney (March 5-March 19) and Perth (March 27-April 6).
In Melbourne, the Festival screens from March 5 - April 6, at the Como, Balwayn and Westgarth Cinemas. Check local newspapers and program guides for screening times and details.
Check cinema guides for screening dates and details, or visit: www.frenchfilmfestival.org
Our reviewers will provide regular updates and reviews of films screening throughout the Festival. Our reviewers includes EMMA FLANAGAN (EF), GREG KING (GK), PETER KRAUSZ (PK) and PETER MALONE (PM).
LAST UPDATED MARCH 14, 2008
PARIS. The opening night of this year’s French Film Festival turns out to be a bland and disappointing multi-character study set amidst the busy metropolis of Paris. There have been many films set in Paris that explore the range of characters, types and stories typical of the city, as well as a number of prominent multi-director films like Paris vu Par (65) and Paris Je T’aime (06), which try to get at the heart of the city.
This film, from reliable writer/director Cedric Klapisch, attempts to explore similar terrain without ever digging deeply enough to expose the key motivations and drives of his characters. His previous films, such as: When The Cat’s Away (96), which was a delightful insight into life in the backstreets of Paris; The Spanish Apartment (02), an amusingly incisive look at a melting pot of cultures and characters trying to get along; and Russian Dolls (05), a similarly witty and layered look at various characters in search of meaning, all are better than the superficial narrative given to us in the under-baked Paris.
Romain Duris is the central character of the film, a dancer who discovers that he needs a heart transplant, while his sister, Juliette Binoche, helps him during his health crisis. Surprisingly, the film gives us little insight into their relationship, depth of feeling for one another, nor any real reason for the audience to care. A wide range of characters inhabit the film alongside the two leads, including a lascivious University professor, an African migrant attracted to being in Paris, a young woman trying to find meaning in her life, and a bakery shop owner with remarkable disdain for most people and cultures, plus many others.
All of this is depicted in a throw-away fashion, yet for the 128 minutes running time, nothing gets extended coverage. It is clear that this film was designed as an audience pleaser, but little care has been taken into developing nuance and depth in the writing. The widescreen lensing by Christophe Beaucarne is beautifully composed, but reflects on the surface gloss of the film and the lack of sub-text.
Looking at the festival program this year, it is clear that artistic choices have been made to find commercial and safe films (many of which have already received distribution deals in Australia) that do not challenge audiences, nor provide an effective overview of the range of films being produced in France (and that numbers around 150-200 films per year). Where are the cutting-edge films, idiosyncratic directors, and unusual stories that are produced each year in France? Hence, the opening night film reveals that this is a festival that has moved to the middle of the road, ensuring blandness sells tickets. A great shame, as I thought a film festival should cover a diversity of film styles and narratives. (PK)
THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN. Set at a coastal fishing town in France, this 151 minute film shot very much in cinema verite style, revolves around a 61 year old shipyard worker facing reduced working hours, outsourcing of his job, and his own family issues and relationships. Abdellatif Kechiche wrote and directed this involving tale with the camera front and centre in all the family disputes and discussions, especially at the dinner table. Kechiche, a Tunisian filmmaker who moved to France, has previously received accolades for Blame It On Voltaire (00) and Games Of Love And Chance (03). Often reminiscent of the intense personal dramas of Robert Guediguian, as well as the free-wheeling neo-realist character studies by John Cassavetes, this film is a triumph of layered story-telling, revealing a great deal about contemporary rural life in a global economy. The film also downplays melodrama in favour of a more naturalistic approach to narrative and character development leading to a resolution that feels both appropriate, yet melancholic. Highly recommended. (PK)
THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN is the story of 61 year old Slimane (Habib Boufares), a tired shipyard worker, who wants to fulfill a long-cherished dream of opening his own restaurant. It is part of the French Film Festival, and will have its own arthouse season release also.
The southern provincial French town of Sète is the apparently idyllic setting for this quiet tale of a man searching for the meaning of his existence at the end of his employed life. Living in a small community of north-African ex-pats, in a rundown hotel, he tries to balance the financial and emotional demands of his ex-wife, 4 adult children and their families, his landlady/lover and her daughter.
The Secret Of The Grain has won several awards, including Césars (French Oscars) in the categories of Most Promising Newcomer, Best Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, and it is easy to see why. It is the humanistic story of an everyday man struggling to get by the best way he can. He has done wrong things in the past, isn’t the greatest communicator, but somehow manages to muddle along despite his limitations and failings; late in life, he finds one thing that he hopes he can leave on this earth as his legacy, and aims to get it. It is also an examination of a group of migrants living in a different culture, with themes of identity, loyalty and community.
Many of the actors were non-professionals, and the film is shot with a naturalistic style. Professional musicians perform in the final scenes, which adds a magnificent texture and passion to the mostly sombre tone of the piece. While Boufares convinces as the downtrodden man with a dream, the star of the show is Hafsia Herzi, who shines as the bright young Rym, whom Slimane sees as his de facto daughter.
This film will appeal to those who like their stories small, family-based and ironic. (EF)
THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN is an intriguing film. It is very long, the last 30 minutes sometimes testing the patience of the audience, especially with the long belly dance as well as the highly emotional outburst of one of the central characters. (While the outburst is justified, the stridency of the performance in the way that it is filmed is very demanding on the audience; the belly dance also contributes to the tension of the film and the situation, but it is also very long.)
The film is set on the Mediterranean coast amongst the French-Arabic community. It focuses on an older man, a worker on the docks for thirty-five years. It highlights his work, his skills. It also highlights his difficulties with the changing work patterns of the 21st century, the role of Arabic workers, and the role of the French. The film is very strong in its portrayal of the extended family (while the central character is divorced, we see his ex-wife, nagging) as well as his various children and their families.
The central focus of the film is the older man’s decision to turn a wrecked and dilapidated boat into a restaurant. The municipal powers are against him. However, he perseveres. With family and friends, he is able to transform the ship. He also holds and inaugural dinner for 100 guests, many of them municipal authorities coming, with the help of his ex-wife making the couscous which is her specialty because she knows the secret of the grain. The rest of the family also do help as do friends from the bar. However, there is a crisis when the older philandering son takes the car to avoid seeing his mistress with the couscous in the back. This has crisis effect for the dinner itself and the final half hour of the film is the way in which the crisis is handled. Then the film suddenly ends, leaving interpretation for the future open to the audience.
The film uses handheld camera quite a deal, with great fluidity in conversations and, especially, the family meal. With the close ups, there is an intimacy and an intensity in the characters’ expressing themselves both seriously and comically. To this extent, the film is quite a detailed and intense exploration of characters and their interrelationships, in the context of contemporary France and the issues about migrants, especially from North Africa. (PM)
TO EACH HIS OWN CINEMA. The Cannes Film Festival in 2007, to celebrate its 60th birthday, commissioned 35 filmmakers to make a three minute film about the cinema with the movie theatre as the primary setting. The effect these films have, shown one after the other, is both exaltory and numbing, as recurrent themes of audience, projection issues, relationships and enjoyment all permeate most of the films. It is certainly an extraordinary collection of filmmakers from around the world, with Polanski, Wenders, Loach, Cronenberg, Inarritu, Yimou, van Sant, Hsaio-Hsien, Campion, Chahine, von Trier, Angelopoulos, de Oliviera, Kaige, Kar-Wei, Kiarostami, Lynch and many more all featuring with a short film.
What is remarkable is seeing veteran actress Jeanne Moreau in Angelopoulos’ film, as well as the overall range of themes and styles adopted by the filmmakers, some of them quite different to their usual approaches. If by the end the impact is less than it should have been is testament more to the unrelenting nature of the total package than on any negative comments about each film.
This is probably an example of a film that would work better on DVD so that you can see each film at your leisure and appreciate each one as an individual entity. Nevertheless, recommended. (PK)
TO EACH HIS OWN CINEMA. If you didn’t like this particular three-minute segment, then there was another coming up shortly. Forty in fact – a project of Gilles Jacob to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Festival de Cannes. And a fine cinema celebration it is.
Forty directors were asked to contribute a short film on cinema. Those who brought a sense of humour to their project did best (Walter Salles in a mock song about the poor fishing port in the south of France, Roman Polanski’s joke at a screening of Emmanuelle, the Coens’ cowboy deciding between La Regle De Jour or Climates, Ken Loach sending up multiplex programming). The nostalgias were also moving and effective (especially Kitani, the Chinese and Lelouch). Some were pleasantly self-congratulatory (Chahine, Moretti). Amos Gittai was very political about the 2006 war. Only 99 year old Manoel de Oliveiera could have a film about John XXIII and Khruschev. And Lars Von Tier was – well, Lars Von Trier. Too many to mention, but the film provides an intriguing directors’ eye view of the power of cinema. (PM)
APRES LUI/AFTER HIM. Presented as a star vehicle for Catherine Deneuve, who at 64 has now appeared in over 100 films, this film follows the psychological travails of a mother who loses her son in a car accident very early in the film, and then finds a way of coping (unhealthily) with that loss, by attaching herself to her son’s best friend. Co-written and directed by Gaël Morel, who played the juvenile lead in Andre Techine’s Wild Reeds (94), imbues the film with a slavish focus on Deneuve and her emotional trajectory.
The film is co-written by Christophe Honore (Love Songs 07, also playing in this festival) and both he and Morel attempt to portray Deneuve as an obsessive trying to cope with this tragedy by transferring her feelings to her son’s friend, but also to the tree that was responsible for the car accident. Yes, it is that sort of film; one that goes for extreme reactions and inappropriate humanistic responses, including the way Deneuve deals with her daughter’s needs and her infant son. Also starring Guy Marchand, the film appears to be somewhat half-baked as it leads to an open conclusion in Portugal, which oddly leaves Deneuve with little to do but appear stunned. Overall, a film that needed more depth in its psychology, and better writing of its character motivations. (PK)
APRES LUI (AFTER HIM). Gael Morel has made a number of interesting films about French young men and their relationships amongst themselves and with their families. A frequent collaborator has been Christophe Honore (Ma Mere, Dans Paris, Chansons d’Amour). Honore’s films tend to have a great deal of dialogue with lots of abstract reflections on life and love. When he collaborates with Morel, the characters and plot drive the film rather than the reflections. This makes them more interesting and accessible.
The plot of Apres Lui is quite straightforward. We are introduced to a young man and his best friend. They go to a party and one is killed in a car accident while the other was driving. The mother of the dead man is distraught at the death of her son but is outwardly controlled while the grief affects her heart and her mind. She becomes more and more obsessed by his death and tries to keep his memory alive by focusing her attention on the driver, keeping alive the memories through him.
This has repercussions on her ex-husband, especially in her inviting the friend to the funeral, on her expectant daughter whom she ignores. The young man’s parents also become disturbed.
Catherine Deneuve (in her 99th film) gives a powerful performance as the mother, on screen for most of the film. One can appreciate her grief and how it has taken possession of her but we, like her family and friends, become more and more exasperated with her behaviour. In a sense, the film suddenly stops – but it leaves the audience thinking about what could possibly happen after this. (PM)
LE VOYAGE DU BALLON ROUGE/FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON. Hou Hsiao Hsien’s film, his first in France, after making major Chinese films such as: A Time To Live And A Time To Die (85), Puppetmaster (93), Café Lumiere (03) and Three Times (05), turns his hand to a leisurely tale punctuated by the constant appearance of a red balloon that follows a young boy around the streets of Paris. Based to some extent on the 34minute short feature The Red Balloon (56) by Albert Lamorisse, this film expands the narrative to include the story of Juliette Binoche, who voices puppets (an interesting personal touch by Hsien) theatrically for a living, while coping with her son, an errant neighbour, financial concerns, and her attempts to have her older daughter return home. Hsien is the master of the extended take and observing the minutiae involved in ordinary life.
The film, somewhat elongated at two hours, attempts to show that it is the little things in life that give us the most pleasure, hence the red balloon serves as both instigator and observer of this tenet. Perhaps, I felt the film could have been a little shorter and tighter with its narrative, especially as there are extended scenes and some repetition that leads to a feeling of ennui. Nevertheless Hsien is a master filmmaker whose control of the medium is exemplary, and if at the end we in the audience feel that not much has happened, you can be assured that a great deal actually has under the surface. (PK)
THE FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (LE VOYAGE DU BALLON ROUGE). The final credits suggest that this is a homage to Albert Lamorisse and his beautiful 1956 film, The Red Balloon. While a red balloon does fly over the city of Paris in this contemporary tale – as a guardian, as a friend or, simply, a movie icon – this film has little to do with 1956 in tone or plot. Yes, there is a young boy, but it is the story of him and his mother and the ups and down of living in Paris (or most places) today.
The film requires a strong suspension of disbelief. It also requires a sensibility that delights in staying focussed on small details rather than quickly getting the big picture. There is such attention to detail (sometimes a feature of director Hou Hsiao Hsien’s Taiwanese films) that scenes of minutiae go on and on – and the prolongation is itself prolonged.
The distinctive performance of a blonde Juliette Binoche must be praised. At times she is all nerves and clatter. She has moments of sheer delight in her son. She is a voice for a marionette play based on Chinese legends which gives rise to quite some vocal versatility. The boy, Simon Iteanu, is a natural and he is centre screen for much of the time.
We have a Taiwanese director who is looking at Paris through magical eyes while bringing his own perceptions about the difficulties of contemporary life everywhere. (PM)
ANNA M. The French do fascinating portraits of individualistic people, and people touched by madness. Anna M is one of those films – only more so.
Isabelle Carre gives a credible and frightening performance as Anna. She is a quiet woman, works at a library, diligent and basically inoffensive. She lives with her problematic mother. She could have lived a quiet life of obscurity. However, depressed, she wants to end her life and walks in front of a car.
We have assumed that she is normal enough, balanced enough. But, within a short time, we see how mistaken we have been. Towards the end of the film, Anna takes a job as a governess of some children of a busy father – and her ultimate dealing with the children is also frightening, especially their game of digging a mine (which happens to be their floor and the roof of the doctor’s apartment) and her losing it with the children.
Carre is fine in a role that Isabelle Huppert would have done chillingly in the earlier part of her career. Gilbert Melki shows us the ordinariness of a sympathetic doctor, the bewilderment of the object of unwanted affection, the exasperation that his life is being taken over.
If you are looking for a disquieting psychodrama, this could well be it. (PM)
WATER LILIES. First time director Celine Sciamma says she is remembering and dealing with questions of ten years earlier in her own life as she charts the story of three fifteen year old girls during a summer holiday. She also says she was intrigued by synchronised swimming and this is how she leads us into the stories.
The film is really a portrait of Marie, introverted, feeling awkward about her less than developed body, pals with the largish Anne, infatuated with the team captain, Floriane, who is the kind of homecoming queen type. The portrait of Anne is of a childish girl who feels out of place though really wants to be in place, relies on Marie but who is singled out for favour by the local jock, Francois, who is the prom king type with Floriane. Floriane is not all she looks. She is attracted to Marie and not to Francois but enlists Marie’s help to stop her seeming to be the local virgin.
Complications, emotions, distress, immaturity and infatuation. (PM)
LES CHANSONS D’AMOUR/LOVE SONGS. At last an original film in this lacklustre festival. Based on the three act structure of Jacques Demy’s sublime musical The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (63), Christophe Honore has fashioned a remarkable contemporary musical based on songs written by Alex Beaupain. Honore is very much an idiosyncratic filmmaker, with Ma Mere (04), and Dans Paris/Inside Paris( 06) already to his credit. The latter starred Louis Garrel who is also the lead actor in this film.
What Honore has done is used the Demy template in an original way to portray this story of love, tragedy and emotional stability, where characters break into song to reveal their underlying thought and emotions. French cinema has a strong sub-genre interest in musicals, as apart from Demy, Alain Resnais has made two musical romantic dramas: Same Old Song (97) and Not On The Lips (03), and Francois Ozon contributed 8 Women (02), where the songs are the critical component of narrative development.
In Love Songs, the 13 songs used in the film serve as both punctuation marks to dialogue based scenes, and as emotional counterpoints to the story. Garrel plays a magazine editor whose relationship with his girl-friend Ludivine Segnier is a somewhat laissez-faire one leading to a ménage a trois with another woman. It is clear that Garrel is just ambling through life, until his girl-friend dies suddenly from an aneurism. His emotional rudder has been significantly affected until an encounter with a university student (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet) starts to clarify his emotional state. The fluidity of his character and his sexuality reflect Honore’s attempt to explain the attitude many young people in France have to relationships, and life in general, and the role of family in maintaining some stability. This social commentary, set to music, sets the film apart from many others of this ilk, and demonstrates that Honore is a clever filmmaker whose career is worth monitoring with some interest.
Despite the small mis-step in co-writing After Him (07) screening at this festival, it is good to see a director willing to take some risks. (PK)
LOVE SONGS. Christophe Honore’s films are usually talkative, abstract reflections and interactions about communication and love. This one is less talkative. However, the characters suddenly burst (or, rather, quietly begin) into song, the French plaintive ballad style with lyrics that hover between depth and the trite.
Structure has three parts: Departure, Absence, Return. Of love, that is. This relates to Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) who dies, leaving her boyfriend (Honore regular, Louis Garrel) and family. They all feel (and sing) her absence. But the way they return from grief to ordinary life varies considerably, especially for Ismael, the boyfriend. Honore maintains some geometric patterns within the structure, with the central characters attempting all gender possibilities.
As they say, this is particularly French in content and style, but it does centre on a self-preoccupied, superficial young man whose life’s framework seems indulgently amoral. (PM)
L’AGE D’HOMME/THE AGE OF MAN: NOW OR NEVER. This alleged fantasy/comedy starring Romain Duris (who should have known better than to accept the lead role in this silly script) who plays a befuddled young man unsure of himself and whether he wants to marry his girl-friend (Aissa Maiga). Writer/director Raphael Fejto spends a lot of time showing Duris fantasising about himself as Leonardo da Vinci giving himself advice - similar, but to less comedic effect, to Woody Allen’s Play It Again Sam (72) - or as a cave-man coping with male expectations. Duris is also forced to play the role shirtless most of the time, rivalling Matthew McConaughey for the title of male bimbo on screen. Fejto, a Hungarian born filmmaker who appeared as a young actor in Au Revoir Les Enfants (87), clearly does not have a good handle on screen comedy, and resorts to forced and obvious scenes that do little to explain character motivations apart from the superficial and obvious. Definitely one of the worst films of the festival, despite having some potentially interesting ingredients (multi-cultural framework, comedy of the sexes, etc). Don’t bother. (PK)
TRUANDS/CRIME INSIDERS. Yet another wallow inside the machinations of rival underworld drug gangs in Paris, reminiscent of Scorsese’s Goodfellas (90) and Coppola’s The Godfather (72), but without any of the stylish resonances, depth of characterization and blackly comic writing associated with these films. Frederic Schoendoerffer’s Agents Secrets (04) violent, yet utterly predictable, crime drama pits a notorious stand-over drug merchant (Phillipe Caubere) against a number of drug lords, both onside and offside. Benoit Magimel plays the hitman for hire who supports Caubere and becomes involved in the gang rivalries that escalate into torture and murder. Indeed there are a few graphic scenes of violence not dissimilar to some in Irreversible (02), which, as presented in wide-screen close-up, will cause some of the audience a challenging experience.
Also in the film is Beatrice Dalle as Caubert’s mistress inveigled into the money, sex and violence endemic to the culture. This is not to say that the film is not worth seeing, but there is too much in it derivative of other genre films, with little new to say about this underworld. If only the final scene, set in Senegal, with Magimel’s glance at the camera, was expanded to explain this character’s motivations and to highlight the ironies implicit in the gang rivalries. (PK)
FAUT QUE CA DANSE!/GOTTA DANCE! Another comedy from a country that churns them out a great rate of knots, this slightly left of centre film focuses on an elderly Jewish man (who professes to being as Jewish as he wants to be) who loves dancing and watching Fred Astaire films like Top Hat (35); his estranged wife who is prone to go off into flights of fancy due to possible dementia and her African carer; his daughter trying to keep her father in control while at the same time not quite in control of herself; and a woman with whom he strikes up an odd relationship. A strong cast headed by veteran actor Jean Pierre Marielle, plus Sabine Azema, Bulle Ogier and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi have some fun in what is essentially a standard narrative with a frisson of black humour. Noemie Lvovsky, who has an acting background appearing in Backstage (05), etc, has fashioned a moderately, if inconsistently, amusing film about aging, seeking fun in life and cultural misunderstandings. Pleasant, but forgettable. (PK)
L’ENNEMI INTIME/INTIMATE ENEMIES. To some extent Algeria is France’s version of the American experience in Vietnam. A somewhat unnecessary war that should never have reached the level of deaths and political hatred that was created by the whole event. France refused to grant Algeria independence in the 1950s, and stoically defended itself against the indigenous population that fought tooth and nail to rid itself of the French. This film is based on a popular novel by Patrick Rotman and deals with the events of 1959 in Algeria, that led to the deaths of many soldiers and combatants on both sides, and the symbolical loss of innocence for the French, embodied by the naïve Lieutenant, played by Benoit Magimel, assigned to a unit fighting the Fellajahs (native born inhabitants fighting for freedom).
Various missions reveal scenes of graphic violence and bloodshed, with strong allusions to contemporary conflicts in Israel/Palestine and Iraq. It is interesting to note that the thousands of deaths were futile as Algerian independence was eventually granted in 1962. The film’s colour de-saturated widescreen lensing and use of hand held camera gives the film a strong sense of urgency and immediacy, with some good dialogue and action sequences. The film was directed by Florent Emilio Siri who also directed the stylish, if vacuous, Hostage (05) with Bruce Willis. Also featuring in the cast is a strong performance from Albert Dupontel, a fellow soldier caught up in a conflict he realizes is both bloody and pointless. Reminiscent of films like Platoon (87) and All Quiet On The Western Front (30), where innocence is the real victim, this is a quite powerful film in its own right. I must also mention the remarkable, haunting music score, by Alexandre Desplat. Recommended. (PK)
JEAN DE LA FOUNTAINE. I have no doubt that in 17th Century French history, Jean de la Fountaine was a major artist, poet and non-conformist. However this lacklustre, downbeat film does not convince me of that at all. Lorent Deutsch plays the eponymous character in this low-rent period piece that fails to ignite any interest in either the character or the political machinations that caused him to be regarded as an enemy of King Louis XIV. As written by Jacques Forgeas, de la Fontaine is such a bland characterization that I wondered why notable fellow artists like Moliere would have any interest in him in the first place. Daniel Vigne directs the film as if it was a telemovie of the week, without any attempt to delve more deeply or resonantly into what appears to be an intriguing period of history. Avoid. (PK)
LE PRIX A PAYER/THE PRICE TO PAY. This is an above average typically French sex comedy that portrays wealthy women as emotionlessly venal narcissists, and working class men as salt of the earth types who are treated badly in romantic situations. Christian Clavier plays a wealthy business executive who discovers his relationship with his wife is both asexual and based on purely money. By cutting off her credit cards and access to the maid, he hopes she will rekindle the spark that is currently not there, and have sex with him. Of course she perceives that as blackmailing her to have sex so she can have her money returned. Nathalie Baye plays a thankless role quite sympathetically by the end. At the same time, Clavier’s chauffeur (Gerard Lanvin) is having relationship problems of his own, as his girlfriend, Geraldine Pailhas appears to be living rent free, with-holding sex, and attempting to write the great novel.
This comedy of the sexes occasionally has some witty lines and set-pieces, and is not as predictable as it may at first sound. Despite the strange attitude the film has about women in particular, there is a lot of amusement in the observations writer/director Alexandre Leclere has to make about relationships that don’t quite go in the intended direction for all parties. Francis Veber’s films have been the major focus on this sub-genre of French sex farces, and this film doesn’t quite reach those levels, but nevertheless there is some fun to be had in this film, even if you may leave the screening wondering what the gender politics set up by Leclere are actually saying about contemporary relationships and male/female roles. (PK)
UN SECRET/A SECRET. Constructed like a gradually evolving mystery, Claude Miller’s beautifully directed tale of a Jewish family and the impact the holocaust had on a young boy in particular, serves as a heart-wrenching take on a topic that has been dealt with by other filmmakers, but not in such an unusual and psychological way. Set at various times from 1985 and then back in time to the 1950s and 60s, and eventually the 1930s, the film focuses on a young boy in 1955 who has visions about a non-existent older brother, and the strained relationship between his Jewish parents. Based on an autobiographical novel by Philippe Grimbert, the film seeks to explain the boy’s visions, his disrupted family and the way his history has been fashioned by tragedy.
Starring Patrick Bruel and Cecile de France, and shot in glowing scenes largely in a post-war France recovering from the war, the film becomes a haunting narrative about loss and coping, reflective of the experiences so much of the population went through during and after World War 2. A great cast includes Julie Depardieu, Yves Jacques, Ludivine Segnier, and Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell & The Butterfly) whose character set in 1985 (and shot in monochrome) serves as the catalyst for the flashbacks and the narrative mystery that is resolved at the film’s conclusion. Miller’s films include directing La Petite Lili (03), writing and directing The Accompanist (92), and writing Under Suspicion (00). Recommended. (PK)