I actually had intended to see this film on the annual Hamburg Film Festival as this was going to be the only chance to see this film in Hamburg on a big screen. French films very often don't get a release in this (stupid) country of mine, so best take the chance you get. But on the very day I wasn't in the mood to go out and therefore I didn't see it. I didn't know by the time what I had just missed out on.
Half a year later I was able to buy the film on DVD, as there were English subtitles on the French DVD, a glorious idea the French sometimes have, hence I could understand the film (my French is sort of non-existent). And only now I realized what an idiot I had been not seeing this film on the big screen.
This is so far the most beautiful film I've seen this year and after having seen two handful of films with Alain Chabat, this is now my favourite of his.
I can't find another word to describe this film than beautiful. The script, the direction, the camera work, the light, the choice of music and most of all the choice of actors is perfect. The only thing which also might have been slightly different is the title, as I think "Papa et son fils" would have made a good title as well. The son is as important as the dad, he could have been mentioned in the title too.
What really amazes me is that here is a film that works while it has no story. Films need a story, otherwise there is nothing to tell, one seems to think. But here is a film that works without a story. Because "a father and his son are driving in a car" isn't a story. And yet there is so much happening and not happening, said and not said, in the end you have seen a film with no story but so much to tell. Whatever you get to see, they drive in the car and sing to the music, the father jokes around, they stop to have lunch on a parking lot, they find a petrol station - everything that happens is just so normal, it happened to every one of us before, and yet there is something lurking underneath, the viewer gets soon the feeling, something is wrong here, not normal, and starts to wonder what it could be. And soon we get glimpses of what is the trouble. And still we know, these lovable characters, these two people, father and son, will manage to handle this, their lives.
This is one of the most realistic and at the same time beautiful films I've ever seen and all I can do is thank the writer/director to have had the courage to make this film. Chapeau! And thanks also to both leading actors who are more than performing in this as often it looks as rather like a documentary than an acting performance. I don't know whether French people see Alain Chabat more like a comedian or an actor, I think he is an awfully good actor and this is his strongest performance to date. Merci beaucoup.
Half a year later I was able to buy the film on DVD, as there were English subtitles on the French DVD, a glorious idea the French sometimes have, hence I could understand the film (my French is sort of non-existent). And only now I realized what an idiot I had been not seeing this film on the big screen.
This is so far the most beautiful film I've seen this year and after having seen two handful of films with Alain Chabat, this is now my favourite of his.
I can't find another word to describe this film than beautiful. The script, the direction, the camera work, the light, the choice of music and most of all the choice of actors is perfect. The only thing which also might have been slightly different is the title, as I think "Papa et son fils" would have made a good title as well. The son is as important as the dad, he could have been mentioned in the title too.
What really amazes me is that here is a film that works while it has no story. Films need a story, otherwise there is nothing to tell, one seems to think. But here is a film that works without a story. Because "a father and his son are driving in a car" isn't a story. And yet there is so much happening and not happening, said and not said, in the end you have seen a film with no story but so much to tell. Whatever you get to see, they drive in the car and sing to the music, the father jokes around, they stop to have lunch on a parking lot, they find a petrol station - everything that happens is just so normal, it happened to every one of us before, and yet there is something lurking underneath, the viewer gets soon the feeling, something is wrong here, not normal, and starts to wonder what it could be. And soon we get glimpses of what is the trouble. And still we know, these lovable characters, these two people, father and son, will manage to handle this, their lives.
This is one of the most realistic and at the same time beautiful films I've ever seen and all I can do is thank the writer/director to have had the courage to make this film. Chapeau! And thanks also to both leading actors who are more than performing in this as often it looks as rather like a documentary than an acting performance. I don't know whether French people see Alain Chabat more like a comedian or an actor, I think he is an awfully good actor and this is his strongest performance to date. Merci beaucoup.