“Father of my Children, ” or, in the original French, “Le Père des mes enfants,” is the French Gala at this year’s London Film Festival, having won the Special Jury Prize at Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year. From writer-director, and former Cahiers du Cinema critic Mia Hansen-Løve, one of the bright new stars of the European film industry, the film is inspired by, and a tribute to, the life of French producer Humbert Balsan, who was behind films by the likes of Lars Von Trier and Claire Denis, as well as Hansen-Løve’s first movie, “Everything is Forgiven” (which we have to admit to not having seen, although we’ll certainly be tracking it down now). Gregoire (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) is the head of Moon Films, and responsible for financing some of the trickiest, most uncompromising art pictures in European cinema. Behind the scenes, he’s a family man, with a beautiful Italian wife (Chiara Caselli) and three young daughters. However, as the difficult projects mount up, life becomes harder and harder for the mogul, with the bank snapping at his heels.
It’s an enormously difficult film to discuss without venturing into spoiler territory. It’s very much a film of two halves, one admittedly more successful than the other, divided by a monumental turn in the plot about halfway through, and the best way to see it is to go in as cold as possible — we hadn’t read the Cannes reviews, and so had no idea what was coming. The film’s currently scheduled for UK release next year, and we’re sure it’ll get a Stateside pick up as well, so if you intend on seeing it, know that it’s terrific — a tremendously acted (particularly by star de Lencquesaing’s real-life daughter Alice de Lencquesaing (“Summer Hours”), who plays Gregoire’s teenage child), beautifully made picture, which manages to make the intricacies of film production and finance riveting: these scenes feel totally authentic, perhaps more so than any picture about filmmaking since “Day for Night.” It unravels a little towards the end, but for anyone who, like its central character, truly loves uncompromising European cinema, it’s a must-see.
Spoilers start here:
(Seriously, it’s a big spoiler, but you can’t discuss the movie without it: so this is your final warning): Humbert Balsan, the basis for the subject matter, and who suffered from depression, hung himself in 2005, once his finances started to go to ruin, partially caused by budget overruns on Bela Tarr’s “The Man From London.” The plot of “Father of my Children” follows this closely – overruns cause Gregoire to come to the edge of bankruptcy, and he’s overtaken with melancholy. A little under an hour into the film, we see a little foreshadowing with a gun in his car, and we feel sure of the direction in which the film is going. And then suddenly, in virtually the next scene, Gregoire is dead, shooting himself in the head, an act barely caught by the camera, filmed in a cold, almost Michael Haneke-esque manner:
Suddenly, the film’s perspective shifts to that of Gregoire’s grieving family — firstly to Gregoire’s widow, who attempts to complete “Saturn”, a film being made by a Swedish auteur (who seems like an amalgam of Lars Von Trier and Bela Tarr) that pushed her late husband over the edge, and then to his daughter, who has a brief affair with a screenwriter her father was working with. Initially, this “Psycho”-esque shift is very successful: Gregoire has dominated the film prior to his death, which really heightens his absence — like most of the characters on screen, you really mourn him. The film refuses to give easy answers, and never goes for sentimentality or cliches, which is probably frustrating for those looking for closure from the film, but is again exactly the position that his family are in.
However, as the film moves towards the end, the section focusing on the eldest daughter, Clemence, feels like it’s from a different movie, despite de Lencquesaing’s very strong performance — there’s a subplot about a revelation of an illegitimate child that tips towards melodrama (although, again, admirably, the film pulls back from the obvious), and seems unnecessary, and the film suddenly feels younger — it’s full of energy and pop music (including excellent picks from the likes of John Leyton and Lee Hazlewood. It’s a smart idea, but generally, the film has remained fairly objective until this point, and it just feels a little odd. By all accounts, this is a much more cohesive film than “Everything is Forgiven,” but it’s this final section that prevented us from loving it completely, although the very ending is genuinely heartbreaking.
End Spoilers
We also wonder if the film’s a little bit niche — we’ll eat up a film like this, but inside-baseball movies like this are rarely popular outside critics and industry professionals, so it’s not exactly going to be a crossover hit. Nevertheless, we really do hope that you’ll be able to see it on the big screen somewhere near you in 2010: it’s one of the best adult-oriented movies we’ve seen all year, and we can’t wait to see what Hansen-Løve comes up with next. [A-]