Stars: Charles Berling, Juliette Binoche, Jeremie Renier and Edith Scob
Director: Olivier Assayas
Rating: M
THIS is a film for special audiences. It moves warmly at a gentle and slow pace, and shows the effects of the death of a widowed matriarch Helene Berthier (Edith Scob) on a family, that grieves when she dies.
Helene’s house is filled with magnificent objects d’art, art nouveau furniture and paintings, which she wants to put in a private collection in a museum, and she shares her feelings with her eldest son.
Faced with the realism of their lives, her children want things a little differently.
The art treasures are worth a lot of money and two of her children want the money to carry on their professions and chosen lifestyle.
They were once a family, who were cared for by Helene, but now they have become different people, and for them their childhood memories at their mother’s house have faded away.
Frederic (Charles Berling), the oldest brother, wants to keep the house, but his younger brother Jeremie (Jeremie Renier) and his sister (Juliette Binoche) do not.
In the interactions of the family, there are hints of global metaphors in the opposition of capitalism and the pursuit of happiness by other means, and the film comes to no real conclusion about them.
It is more comfortable with posing questions about these issues, rather than providing answers to them.
The film works much better as a portrayal of the conflicted emotions of three children who have moved away from their dependency on a strong mother, although they nevertheless maintain very fond attachments to her and to each other.
Frederic accepts the decision of his siblings, though he is unhappy with it.
Along the way, there are some fascinating conversations with executives of the Musee d’Orsay who want to purchase some of Helene’s key pieces.
In fact, the movie began as a filmed documentary for the museum to celebrate its 20th anniversary, but it changed into a human drama where actual museum officials play a part.
Not surprisingly, the film also offers us reflections on the meaning of art.
The film is good enough that it deals with feelings of mortality, nostalgia and family relationships in an arresting way.
In a very vivid sense, one feels the camera snooping on members of the family as they interact with each other.
There is an extraordinary naturalness to how they interrelate, and Olivier Assayas brings to the movie a wonderful sense of spontaneous direction.
Juliette Binoche and Charles Berling, in particular, capture the nervous tensions of their uncomfortable relationship with the mother; and the cinematography is excellent as the camera roams about Helene’s house, without ever disturbing its all-embracing presence.
There is a glowing, natural quality to the movie and it depicts very astutely the humanity of a family that comes under pressure through the death of a revered, but controlling mother.
When the house is emptied of its objects, it becomes a partying place for young people, and Helene’s grandchildren are involved.
When that happens, there is definite nostalgia for a presence that is lost and for a beauty that has gone. One cannot help but feel that drinking, carousing and drug-taking have taken over the elegance that once was its history, and the parents of these young children are no longer part of its memories.
Helene may well have seen that coming, and her children go off to their corners of the world, despite what their family home has become.
There are two audiences for this movie.
One is the mature audience that appreciates the elegance of the house, the people in it and the extravagances of the French rural countryside.
The other is those who appreciate the marvellous art and antique objects in the house which become the focus of much of the movie.
The film will appeal greatly to those who appreciate the beauty of the objects Helene’s children want to sell.
However, the melancholy and feelings of mortality are what stay, and there is a wistful quality to this movie that lingers.
There is relatively little action in this movie.
It is very much a talk film and, for some it will unwind too slowly, but there is reward in the terrific acting performances and the naturalness of Assayas’ direction, as the film comes to its tentative conclusion about life, death and the difficulties of trying to be consistently human.
The movie will appeal a lot to those who are inclined to look back nostalgically to what once was, and now no longer is.
