Father Of My Children

Far removed from the frothy fare that the French are well known for, All Is Forgiven writer / director Mia Hansen-Løve’s second full length feature – Father Of My Children (Le père de mes enfants) – is a sombre yet bittersweet affair about love, life, loss, family, finances and film. Starring Louis-Do de Lencquesaing (Hidden) as the father of the title, and Chiara Caselli (Ripley’s Game), Alice de Lencquesaing (Summer Hours, the real life offspring of her on-screen father), Alice Gautier and Manelle Driss (both newcomers) as his feisty family of females (his wife and three daughters respectively), it is a mature, melancholy and nuanced offering that follows a few short months in the life of the Canvel family, from a peaceful weekend in their country house to a quick trip to Sweden, and including significant exposure to the hustle and bustle of professional and personal relationships, Parisian-style, in between.

Father Of My Children is a film of two distinct halves. In the first section, we meet Grégoire (de Lencquesaing), a film producer running his own company, and on the verge of making his fiftieth feature. Fiercely proud of his work and his back catalogue, the strain of juggling several simultaneous projects – each in various states of progress – is beginning to show, and despite his efforts to make each of them a hit, trouble surrounds every one. Making matters worse is his precarious financial situation, with the banks closing in as each day passes, and his determined lawyer and accountant seemingly unable to stave them off irrespective of desperate attempts to stay afloat. To escape from the tension of his working day Grégoire attempts to spend time with his family – wife Sylvia (Caselli) and daughters Clémence (the younger de Lencquesaing), Valentine (Gautier) and Billie (Driss) – however even at home his focus shifts back to work, much to Sylvia’s dismay.

The second half of Father Of My Children unravels the consequences of Grégoire’s actions as events take a distinct turn as a result of his intervention. Sylvia and her children come to the fore as they become more involved in the family business, with each connecting with Grégoire’s work for their own reasons. For Sylvia, her participation forces her to confront the stark reality of the difficulties faced in balancing work and home lives – and to understand Grégoire’s struggle to do so, whilst teenager Clémence embraces the creative side of film as she blossoms into young adulthood, from daytime screenings of old favourites followed by caffeinated beverages in a cafe, to an innocent liaison with a student (played by the director’s brother, Igor Hansen-Løve) formerly under Grégoire’s tutelage. Although playful youngsters Valentine and Billie remain distanced from the action, they too come to appreciate the legacy of their father’s film career, in the magical, wide-eyed way that all children view the acts of their parents.

The Un Certain Regard (Special Jury Prize) winner at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival – and recipient of a Lumiere Award for best screenplay as well – Father Of My Children is a difficult film to dissect without going into much detail, as so much hinges on a crucial plot point that irrevocably alters the lives of the characters (a quick internet search can fill in the blanks for readers keen to know more). Rumoured to be modelled on Humbert Balsan and his wife Donna (in an interpretation of the course of the respected producer’s life – one which immediately impacted upon Hansen-Løve, in fact), it is perhaps best described as a film that deconstructs the reality and perception of self image and its mirroring amongst those closest to us, in an unimposing, unassuming, unaffected and uncontrived effort. With well-deserved praise directed towards the entire cast for earnest and authentic performances (with the child actors particularly polished), and to Hansen-Løve for such a complex, intelligent and ultimately life-affirming final product, Father Of My Children is a sensitive treat of restrained emotion and vivid characterisation within the family drama setting, and – despite sometimes difficult themes and austere imagery – well worth watching.

Father Of My Children opens in selected cinemas from August 26, 2010, with advanced screenings between August 20 – 22.

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Farewell (L’Affaire Farewell)

Farewell

When the USSR was officially dissolved at the end of 1991, a Cold War that had existed between the true and just United States and the Evil Communists since the end of the Second World War. For cinema fans, this gave us all sorts of brilliant films from North By Northwest, through Dr. Strangelove and all of the James Bond films from Sean Connery through Timothy Dalton. More recently, there has been a run of great pieces coming out of Europe that look back on the Cold War years and the extreme (the Oscar-winning The Lives of Others) or the legacies they leave for  (the comic brilliance of Goodbye Lenin!). Joining this canon is the French film Farewell, from director Christian Carion (Joyeux Noël).

As it turns out, the French had far more to do with the downfall of the Soviets than we had previously realised. Apparently “based on a true story” (a line that can always be used liberally), the film follows the events surrounding the disenchanted Soviet General Colonel Grigoriev (Emir Kusturica) and the effects of his trading Soviet secrets with a French engineer working in Moscow. His codename was Farewell. The secrets trade-off begins an international event that has massive consequences for both men, and according to the publicity for the film, helped bring about the end of the Cold War.

At times Farewell is heavy-handed attempt to slap down the arrogance of the United States and any past ‘special relationships’ the French may have had with the Lords of Democracy, painting the French in an almost innocent light. Indeed, throughout most of the film we are expected to believe that the French amateur spy is above suspicion simply because he is disobeying all the traditional rules of spyhood (spydom?) and acting in plain sight. Although never as hard-hitting or emotionally engaging as the intimate portrait that excellent The Lives of Others painted, the film attempts to bring the human face behind the Iron Curtain to light. However, this is equally obvious, with unnecessary elements of an affair and a Queen-obsessed son back in Russia that don’t come anywhere near to the level of intimacy observed in that Oscar-winning German film.

Farewell is a cold film about the Cold War, with vast white landscapes isolating us physically from gaining any real insight into this period. We do know one thing though: the French are masters of duplicity.

Top 5 Cold War Films

• The Lives of Others (2006): This superior film takes us back to East Germany in 1984. An agent conducting surveillance on a journalist and his wife becomes increasingly involved in their lives. Winner of Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 Academy Awards, and the equivalent of the BAFTAs and a number of other ceremonies. Deservedly so, as this taut thriller turned in some terrific performances from Ulrich Mühe.
• North By Northwest (1959): It is difficult to do any list of spy thrillers without including Hitchcock’s Cold War thriller, unsurpassed to this day. Hapless New York advertising executive (Cary Grant) is mistaken for a spy and chased across the country. Memorable scenes involving a crop-duster and Mount Rushmore will live on in film history forever. Hitchcock’s later Cold Ward piece, Topaz (1969), was a late-career disappointment.
• Dr. Strangelove (1964): Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. As the extended title would imply, this takes a satirical jab at the Cold War antics which were at their height in the 1960s. Peter Sellers outdoes himself as the titular Dr. Strangelove, desperately trying to keep a Nazi salute under wraps, President Merklin Muffley and the timid Group Captain Lionel Mandrake. An insane general tries to start a war that everyone in the War Room is trying to stop. “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room”.
• Dr. No (1962): Just about any James Bond film up until the end of the 1980s could easily be included on here, with the exception of Moonraker of course, and From Russia with Love is an obvious choice too. The scene in which Ursula Andress (as the first wacky-named Bond Girl Honeychile ‘Honey’ Ryder) emerges from the ocean has been imitated countless times, not least of which was a gender-reversed tribute in the Bond reboot Casino Royale (2006). Before Bond had countless and increasingly ridiculous gadgets, this was a straightforward and sexy spy story that started a series which now numbers 22 films!
• Goodbye Lenin (2003): Devoted son (Daniel Brühl) must convince his politically active mother, who slipped into a coma prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, that the Eastern Bloc is still going strong and nothing has changed. Hiding the proliferation of Western commercialisation from someone leads to great comic moments, but is also incredibly touching as well.

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