Cinephile-Francophile

Archive for October, 2011

Classically structured, Tu seras mon film aligns itself with the dark, disheartening naturalistic novels of the XIX^th c. where a man’s soul is lost to the dictates of a dehumanizing environment. Rather ironic in this case that the setting should be the terroir par excellence of civilized good taste and “joie de vivre”.  Indeed, a glorious St Émilion vineyard  is invested with doom as it hosts the sinister unraveling of filial dynamics…

The film centers on the pitiless master of a prestigious winery (a formidable Niels Arestrup) who favours the gifted son of his cancer stricken manager (a magnificent Patrick Chesnais whose face seems to espouse the topographical features of the land he harvests) to his own. Ensues a hateful and hurtful battle for succession not so much between the enraged natural heir and the (not so) reluctant adoptive one, but between the cruel patriarch and his begotten black sheep. Arestrup’s villainy reaches Shakespearian heights yet avoids operatic melodrama : he is cool and ferociously cutting. And Lorànt Deutsch excels as both the fragile and fruitless offspring, whose tenacious frailty is both pathetic and disarming. The  gorgeous, smooth cinematography alternates looming widescreen aerial shots full of ominous beauty, with heady, dizzying close character shots. An excellent, lean, full bodied French drama, as good as they come.

Only, please, I beg that this fine, incisive vintage be not remade  into a  diluted Californian one.

Trailer : http://youtu.be/MgwTkI0vKrM

A furious war of love and life waged at all costs against illness and despair.

Certainly, a vertiginous endeavour for the writers/directors/actors (Valérie Donzelli and Jérémie Elkaïm), the film’s subject matter would typically send audiences running for the hills : it promises to chronicle the real-life battle of Jérémie Elkaïm (Romeo) and Valérie Donzelli (Juliette) for the life of their baby, struck with  brain cancer at birth.

Not all battles are won, but Romeo and Juliette never once abandon their fight and never once allow death to enter their lives. The film is harrowing, dizzying, honest and enchanting… full of song and laughter.  It didn’t jerk a tear out of me, but rather had me in stitches and left me feeling neither battered nor powerless but willful, grateful, and armed for whatever life has in store.

trailer : oY7LGzaebMc