My Father & I
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: B-
Most father/son relationships in film are lame,
unrealistic and rarely natural or progressive.
The Hollywood narrative in particular, especially in this Spielberg era,
have dysfunctional, evil and/or absentee fathers. French director Anne Fontaine gives the subject matter a new
twist with My Father & I (2000), and her results (which she co-wrote
with Jacques Fieschi) are more interesting than expected.
Jean-Luc (Charles Berling) is a Gerontologist who is has
hit 40 and is a success in his line of work.
He makes a good living and has a successful marriage with Isa (Natacha
Régnier) and a beautiful house in a fine neighborhood. They do not see it as a trap and actually
have it comfortable in a good way. This
is all subtly challenged when his estranged father Maurice (the great Michel
Bouquet) shows up and decides to be a spoiler.
Maurice was and still is a Communist/Socialist who believes in these
principles and that his son is living a life that is numbing. It does not help when his wife hits it off
with his father.
Bouquet is really good and the right choice for this role,
being a star during the French New Wave, and all the social change that goes
with it. I also think the other leads
are really good. The film is not hell
bent on comparing the two political points of view and never lets that get in
the way of the story of how two different ideologies helped tear father and son
apart slowly. Though the film tries to
be critical of the son’s life, I wondered if it was really avoiding or at least
glossing over the fact that the absentee father is a problem. Nothing, not even being a radical, is ever
an excuse for a father to not be a real father. The film is too ambiguous for its own good on that count, even
though he left for Africa to be a doctor.
The film does not go all the way it could to explore most of these
issues, but makes for an interesting viewing worth your time.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is sometimes
with a slight video look form the PAL to NTSC conversion, but it looks like the
film it was shot on otherwise.
Jean-Marc Fabre, A.F.C., offers a look that is somewhere between the
city itself and the cold scientific look of the son’s place of employment. Though it is hard to tell from a couple
screenings and even form a decent DVD copy, I had to start to wonder if the
narrative was being communicated to some extent. How far this goes is a separate essay, but I liked it. A Dolby Digital theatrical release, the
Dolby Digital here is only 2.0 Stereo and the sound has hardly any Pro Logic
surround information, oddly. Otherwise,
it sounds like a current recording.
Extras include cast interviews with the three principles at about 15
minutes each, except Bouquet’s, which is twice as long. There are also two trailers, one French, one
English. That’s a good additional
package that enhances and interesting film.
- Nicholas Sheffo
