Customer Reviews

My Father and I

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you like to become so involved in a film that you feel as though you are inside the minds of the actors and the writer and the atmosphere of a film, then MY FATHER AND I is definitely a classic film to treasure. On the other hand, if you favor stories that are linear and clear with a start and an undisputed finish that brings assured closure, then this film will be frustrating. Anne Fontaine has gathered an accomplished cast of French actors and directed them in a mind excursion that asks as many questions as it answers: are we observing a family out of sync and falling into disrepair before our eyes, or are we privy to the instant mental response to a letter that triggers a life in a flashing moment that is resolved by psychological hypothesis? It is this kind of storytelling that the French do so well, and in this reviewer's opinion this is one of the finest films to challenge our minds that has come along in years.

Jean-Luc (impeccably portrayed by the exquisite Charles Berling) is a wealthy physician whose practice in Versailles caters to the aging wealthy, a clientele who see him as a god with his Human Growth Hormone injections, Botox treatment, and other battlements against aging (Gerontology, his specialty). He is married to a phenomenally beautiful wealthy wife (Natacha Regnier, as beautiful as she is talented), lives in a magnificent home, uses his younger brother as his aide/chauffeur allowing that brother to pursue his dreams of being a standup comedian, and maintains a mistress on the side. His marriage is childless: his wife depends on her husband to be her doctor and has been informed that for her health she should not have the children she yearns to bear. As the story opens, Jean-Luc is readying himself for a party honoring him for his contributions to the town, a party of great elegance given in his own home. As he prepares to dress he notices a letter announcing that his father has died. Pregnant pause.... At the party that commences his father appears and gradually we discover that the father Maurice (played with great subtlety and nuance by Michele Bouquet) and his sons have not seen each other for many years: the disillusioned Maurice left his family when his two sons were very young to go off to Africa to treat the indigenous population - a physician to the poor in contrast to Jean-Luc's physician to the wealthy. This history has profoundly affected Jean-Luc who avoids intimacy with his wife, does not want children to remind him of the childhood he remembers with loathing for his deserting father, and in many ways has brought him to a life that mimics that of the very father that he no longer knows. Maurice ingratiates himself into staying with Jean-Luc and his wife, gently alludes to the fact that after leaving Africa following one of the many government overthrows he is without pension or support, and gently requests support form his wealthy son. Maurice befriends Jean-Luc's wife, attempts reconnection with the other son, and finally has a confrontation with Jean-Luc over the differences (and very real similarities) between their life choices. At this point a significant scene brings closure to the tale and we are returned to the image of Jean-Luc reading the letter that initiated the pregnant pause at the beginning of the film. It is up to us, the viewer to decide if we have observed fact, or if we have entered the imaginative brain of Jean-Luc reacting to a letter. This is movie making at its finest. The direction is brilliant, tense, revelatory, and kaleidoscopic. The acting is so very fine that it defies description. An outstanding movie visually, psychologically, and technically. Highly Recommended.

Fontaine's "My Father and I" is the kind of dense, subtle psychological drama you rarely see anymore, seeding the fertile territory of father-and-son relations with a layer of intriguing mystery. Jean-Luc's simmering resentment toward his prodigal dad is barely contained, but he allows him to stay, a decision that leads to a series of life-altering revelations and upheavals. Berling excels as Jean-Luc, but it's veteran Bouquet who steals the film with his expertly shaded portrayal of pere Maurice.

This movie is centered around the unresolved relationship between a grown son and his father. The father abandons two sons when they are very young, having never really spent time with either, and goes off to Africa to practice medicine in remote rural areas. What he cannot or never gave of himseslf to his own family, he somehow is able to share with strangers in a faraway land. One son becomes a wastrel, and the other, a society doctor, specializing in keeping rich people feeling well and looking young--The antithesis of the kind of medicine his father practiced.

The physician son believes the father is dead and is stunned to see him arrive unannounced at one of his social gatherings, scruffy, broke and without any direction to his life. As the movie progresses, we learn that the doctor's wife is starving for affection , children and a more fulfilling life, while he keeps everyone at arms' length and emotionally distant. A result of having been abandoned by his father? Or, having really never known his father, is it a deliberate strategy for life? As his life unravels, his brother's life becomes more delineated, insigthful and directed.

Throughout the movie we are teased by the presence of the father. Is he a ghost? Is this a flashback?

This is a well acted drama with a few surprises here and there.

It gets into the types of issues that can arise between father and son when things don't go perfectly in life. This can cause very deep and sometimes repressed anger which it does in this case. The re-appearance of the father after many years causes those feelings to surface in a somewhat comical way at the end.

We find out that those repressed feelings have affected the main character and caused him to be less than truthful with those around him. As another reviewer said he had ironically become like his father in some ways.

The brother is a stand up comic but then sometimes you see him in the movie saying things by himself with no audience there. It's like he's narrating the story at times. This adds to the rather unusual atmosphere of the movie.

Based on his comedy routine he better keep his day job as his doctor brother's chauffeur.

There's not much sexual action in this movie. Rather the occasional sexually suggestive scenes only reinforce the main theme of the movie which is people who have become cold and distant.

After reading some of the other reviews I'm not sure that I really understood the ending. I guess it's one of those movies where you're not quite sure what really happened.

The dvd I rented was in French with English subtitles.

Jeff Marzano

Damage

A wonderful movie, with superb actors . director and script. The theme of the profiteering modern doctor versus the old fashioned healer father ismagnificently handled and the rest of the story and the cast really only adorn this basic theme. When I heard the physician-son recommend human growth hormone for rejuvenation ,I knew, I faced a quack albeit a very successful one. A theme that for some reason is tabu in Hollywood. I hope not forever.

I saw this excellent French film a couple of years ago in the theater and have been waiting for it to come out in DVD ever since. The writing, directing and acting all make it a superb psychological thriller in the tradition of Hitchcock--more like his "Vertigo" era than his "Rear Window" era. It's essentially about a son who has buried all these ill feelings toward his father inside him. Then one day he learns his father has died and his feelings resurfaces. Of course he suffers from massive guilt, but he also wonders what his life might've been like if it wasn't for his father. That's all I want to say--I don't want to spoil the rest of this film. A critic compared this film to "Swimming Pool." I can see that. They're both about repressed characters with a terrific imagination. The one thing I don't like about this DVD is that they changed the title. I prefer "How I Killed My Father" over "My Father and I." I highly recommend this film.