A classic French family drama featuring fine performances by legend Catherine Deneuve and reigning star Mathieu Amalric even if the raging and crying might be a bit much for the Christmas season
César/Cannes nominated director and screenwriter Arnaud Desplechin’s Christmas season drama features French screen legend Catherine Deneuve in one of her best roles with scorching supporting work from “Diving Bell and Butterfly” César winner Mathieu Amalric. The winner of the 1993 César for Best Actress in the SE Asia colonial potboiler “Indochine” is at her best as a troubled but still beautiful wife and mother. Unfortunately, there is not a lot more than that to the film. The story centers on family tensions that come to a head during a Christmas get-together. The main characters are the mother and father in crisis, the tortured black sheep son and the confused and emotional daughter. Others include one additional sibling and several in-laws. Too much wine is consumed and hurtful things are said amidst the lush photography and French passion of it all.
Junon (Denueve) has given birth to four children with her husband Abel (César nominated Jean-Paul Roussillon). Three of four have matured into young adults. One of the four died at the age of seven years of a rare genetic condition. The condition can only be reversed through a bone marrow transplant which itself has a significant failure rate. In order to even try the transplant a compatible donor must be found. Neither Junon, Abel, nor the first child Elizabeth was compatible as donors so a third child was conceived in the hopes of generating a donor. When the third child, Henri, was found to not be compatible for the transplant, the seven year old Joseph died.
The family carries the grief and guilt of this death with them into the present day setting of the Christmas gathering. But raising these feelings to the breaking point is the discovery that Junon herself has leukemia and can only be saved with the same bone marrow transplant that proved unobtainable for little Joseph. Tests throughout the film reveal two compatible donors, black sheep Henri and grandchild Paul.
The main theme in the film is the indestructible nature of the family unit. Although the family members seem to be so anguished at one another that they would die to be rid of the mess the family unit survives and all live for another day. Henri is tortured with a deep sense of self deprecation, possibly brought on by some vague Jungian connection to his incompatibility as a marrow donor and inability to save his younger brother’s life. As time goes on, his inability to deal with this plunges him further and further in failure and self-destruction. The more he tries to succeed the more impossible his goals and the more alcohol he consumes to forget. This is the basic spiral of his life.
His older sister Elizabeth has disowned him and banished him from the family in return for her financial bailout of Henri and, in effect, the entire family. It would appear that both mother Junon and sister Elizabeth unconsciously deny love to Henri and plunge him to his destruction as his helpless inability to help Joseph plunged the infant to his death.
César nominated Anne Consigny plays Elizabeth the oldest child but it is Mathieu Amalric as Henri the middle child who does the heavy lifting in this film. Amalric is a triple winner of France’s highest film award, garnering Best Actor César in 2008 for his spectacular performance as the paralyzed intellectual in “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” This followed his previous win in 2005 for the multiple Cesar nominated “Kings and Queen” (another collaboration with writer/director Arnaud Desplechin). In 1997 he won the same award for most promising actor for “My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument” (also written and directed by Desplechin).
Lush cinematography by five time César nominee (one win—“ Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train”—1998) Eric Gautier makes this film a pleasurable experience in the watching for most of its 152 minutes but the last twenty minutes or so begin to weigh on the viewer.
Release: November 14, 2008
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