Le premier jour du reste de ta vie (2008)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Rémi Bezançon

Writer:

Rémi Bezançon (writer)

Release Date:

23 July 2008 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A sprawling drama centered around five keys days in a family's life. |

Plot Keywords:

Family Life | Cigarette Smoking | Hospital | Dog | Diary

Awards:

4 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Jacques Gamblin	...	Robert Duval
Zabou Breitman	...	Marie-Jeanne Duval
Déborah François	...	Fleur Duval
Marc-André Grondin	...	Raphaël Duval
Pio Marmaï	...	Albert Duval
Roger Dumas	...	Pierre
Cécile Cassel	...	Prune
Stanley Weber	...	Éric
Sarah Cohen-Hadria	...	Clara
Camille De Pazzis	...	Moïra
Aymeric Cormerais	...	Sacha
Jean-Jacques Vanier	...	Mathias Moreau
Philippe Lefebvre	...	Philippe
François-Xavier Demaison	...	Le docteur Marcaurel
Gilles Lellouche	...	Le rasta blanc

Also Known As:

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life (International: English title)

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Netherlands:6 | Ireland:16

Company:

Mandarin Films

Movie Connections:

References Apocalypse Now (1979)

The script is you and me, boy. No-one knows you better than family.

Can you go back in your memory and find a key day that was the start of your life as you know it now? Who were the people around you then? What was your favourite song? Was there maybe a special piece of clothing that brings memories flooding back with a smile? What about the food you loved those days? Iconic details. Where are they burned in your brain like a hit song, a movie masterpiece, an unstoppable feeling. When did your life first explode? Somewhere those images are a picture of who you are.

Maybe it was getting married. Your first child. Leaving home. Passing your driving test. Getting your Amex Gold. Or falling in love. Moving house. Losing your virginity. Starting university. Finding religion. Getting stoned. Discovering you were someone else all along. Take five people. Take five days. Define the tingles at either end of their spines. Who they are to themselves. To each other. The family in which they are all, somehow, related.

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life might not be Magnolia or even American Beauty, but it's damn good fun. This is thumpingly enjoyable entertainment, even with (dare I mention them?) 'subtitles.' In less than two hours, you will feel that you've known Mum and Dad, eldest son Albert, grungy sister Fleur, romantic bro' Raphael all your life. Cos now you know theirs.

Blood ties and facts are only one of the ways we relate. Usually the really important bits are a single moment, incident or word. Bits that affect everything else. Bits that define people to you in ways words can't. Intimacies or misunderstandings. Hard decisions taken when you disagree with those you love.

Powered by a wonderfully cross-Channel soundtrack, The First Day of the Rest of Your Life is fast and funny. And never flippant. A film for intelligent teenagers who still like to get wasted. For parents struggling to bond. For those in relationships and those struggling to connect. It's not often I feel I can recommend a film to nearly everyone I know (barring subtitles allegies). But I'll stick my neck out and say this is one.

It's a symphonic comedy. Of finding yourself alone in the midst of those who love you. Taking pride in yourself even if no-one remembers. Of finally getting through to someone. It could almost be the thinking feelgood film of the year if it wasn't in French (maybe they'll dub it for America??) To get such a complex mix right is masterpiece of modern editing. But the filmmakers have also been astutely conscious of the need to define key experiences in terms audiences can relate to rather than just the way they are experienced by the characters. A love of grunge and praying at Jim Morrison's grave, for instance, does not translate into inflicting Nirvana and the Doors on us. Rather, music is used in classic style to communicate feelings.

Or Bowie: Time - He's waiting in the wings . . .

His script is you and me, boy There are plenty of senseless things in the First Day of the Rest of Your Life. Believe me – air guitar has never looked so cool. But there are enough really cool, heart-warming moments to make it more than worth your ticket price. It doesn't hit the intellectual self-awareness heights about dysfunctional families that it is capable of – life, death, trust and infidelity, burying your dog, nicotine patches, feng shui, confiscated joints, premature ejaculation and facelifts – none of this matters and yet it does. And as polished all-round entertainment, this film is fairly hard to beat. If you disagree, maybe be you're taking life too seriously and not seriously enough. Sometimes it's hard (as every film critic knows). To just stop analysing long enough to smell the grass. In literary terms, it amounts to Mrs Dalloway buying the flowers herself.