Only the
French could get away with it. No, seriously. This one, literally only the
French could have done. If there wasn’t so much genuine emotion in this film I
could have sworn it was actually made as the result of a bet. I mean come on.
What other nation could actually get away with having the characters read
classic literature out loud to camera with occasional re-enactment but
basically, just for its own sake. Seriously. There are entire minutes upon
minutes (a massively long time for a film. Especially a film only 75 minutes
long) where the only thing happening is a character reading out loud. Anyone
who knows the French knows EXACTLY what I mean and don’t pretend you don’t. And
yet, the film is so jam-packed with emotion it sits on your heartstrings like a
woolly mammoth. Even though it does have what I would characterise as a rather
simplistic “happy ending”. But you know
what? The rest of it is so good, for once, I don’t care.
Meet
Germaine Chazes (Gerard Depardieu. Yes, he is AMAZING in this part and just
right for the part too but I’m really beginning to despair at the fact that the
French don’t seem to export a single film without either him or Jean Reno (but
rarely both together) in it.) He is a handyman who ekes out a living doing
odd-jobs and selling the produce of his vegetable garden. He (practically)
lives with his very cantankerous old mother. They do not get on that well but
he knows how to manage her. He has a loving girlfriend and a couple of friends
he sees regularly at the local pub. Thing is though, Germaine isn’t the
sharpest tack in the box – or so everyone makes him think. It is true that he
cannot read and write as well as he should and that he has not a shred of tact
despite his very, very good heart but is he actually stupid? Germaine certainly
thinks so, and he has no notion of bettering himself in anyway until he runs
into Margueritte (Gisele Casadesus), a 95 year-old book
enthusiast, in his local park. It is, to quote the classic film, the start of a
truly beautiful friendship…
This just
goes to show that to put across genuine emotion and a very real story about a
complex phenomenon, you don’t need reams and reams of film. You don’t need a
convoluted storyline either. It was a bit of an understatement to say that
Germaine and his mother don’t get on. In a word, she bullies him. Take it from
someone who knows a thing or two about bullying, that’s what it’s called. We
are introduced to the relationship with a wonderful rant by the mother in the
supermarket (just for reference in case you’ve seen the film) and I honestly
felt as if I had been slapped in the face. I physically jumped… I think
following that scene with the adult Germaine muttering a response to it also
fits in very well, that kind of hurt does not go away that easily and the way
Germaine so desperately tries to cope with his mother’s slights (and by that I
mean the ones she administered as he grew up) is positively heart-rending.
But there
is another, second dimension to this film that I don’t mind revealing slightly.
Margueritte begins by setting Germaine on his feet and giving him the tools to
rebuild himself and his confidence, but she is, as I mentioned, 95. Her health
is failing. So there is an element of “switching around” here. It is Germaine
who must care for her now. And if we accept that Marguerite is the “mother
figure” in this story, this film is about “growing up”. That point in time that
comes to us all when we realise that it is now our turn to care for and/or
worry about our parents. It is about realizing your parents are not invincible.
And above and beyond anything, it’s about how scary that feeling can be. Even
with his girlfriends’ love and support Germaine can barely cope, his world is
almost completely turned on its head. Again take it from someone who knows this
process, the feeling is wonderfully portrayed – kudos to the director and to Mr
Depardieu. It’s funny really that more people don’t make films about this
rather painful rite of passage actually… I rather think it’s something to do
with the fact that we are rather deeply touched by it and would rather not talk
about it… You’ll be glad you were open to discussion once you’ve seen this
though. Elegant and beautiful.
Oh and one
last thing – do I like the ending? No. Would I have preferred a touch more
pathos and a touch less unreasonable tying up of problems? Yes. Given that the
film is so sensitive and real in every other aspect do I really care? Like I
said in the first paragraph… No… J
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