Montreal's Cinemania continues to fascinate
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Montreal's Cinemania Film Festival opened Thursday with "A Christmas Tale," in which a French family, including Elizabeth and her husband Claude (Anne Cosigny and Hippolyte Girardot at left), has come together to solve a life-threatening problem of its matriarch Junon (Catherine Deneuve at right). Courtesy Cinemania Film Festival |
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By Jim Lowe Staff Writer - Published: November 9, 2008
MONTREAL — It takes the French to make a soap opera into a powerful and fascinating psychological study like "A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël)." Arnaud Desplechin's new film, starring the legendary Catherine Deneuve, opened the 14th annual Cinemania Film Festival Thursday at the Imperial Cinema.
Cinemania, which has Vermont roots, presents new films from France with English subtitles – 30 this year – through Nov. 16. The screenings are augmented by film-related activities such as Friday's illuminating master class with Desplechin for film students and the general public.
On Friday, the festival, which was founded and is directed by half-time Waitsfield resident Maidy Teitelbaum, also offered a unique human drama intersecting with the animal world – wolves in fact – and a new take on the war of the sexes.
"A Christmas Tale" is jigsaw-puzzle-storytelling where the myriad personal dramas of family members come together at a Christmas celebration. The catalyst is the discovery by the matriarch Junon (Deneuve in a grand performance) that she has a potentially fatal genetic blood disease and is in need of a bone marrow transplant. One by one, family members find that they are not compatible donors.
The last hope is Henri, the black sheep who has been estranged from the family for six years. Thus the family reunion — which proves difficult to say the least. Henri (Mathieu Almaric in a striking performance) evokes only anger from his sister Elizabeth (Anne Cosigny in a powerfully multi-dimensional performance), who once paid off his debts on the condition that she never have to see him again. Sparks fly when they are forced to meet.
That's not the only family history that comes to play in this sometimes tense, sometimes funny, and frequently touching reunion. Sylvia, wife of one of the brothers, Ivan, discovers that Simon, Junon's nephew and every bit a family member, has been in love with her since childhood; the result is a unique and tender lovers' triangle.
A heart-wrenching complication ensues when Elizabeth's son Paul (beautifully played by Emile Berling) finds that he is compatible. The 16-year-old, sad and suffering from a mental illness, feels that this is the one thing that he might be able to do right.
The family is held together only by the simple goodness of its patriarch, Abel (played with beautiful simplicity by Jean-Paul Roussillon).
The film's storytelling emphasizes the jigsaw effect by creating seemingly disparate pieces which finally come together. The filming is very intimate, and music, ranging from classics by Scarlatti and Mendelssohn to class jazz creates a running commentary.
Desplechin's film, which he also wrote, evokes the personal dramas that each and every person struggles, laughs and revels through in life. The telling of the tale is intriguing, riveting, sometimes funny and always touching.
A very different but very powerful film was Gilles Legrands' "The Maiden and the Wolves (La jeune fille et les loups)." In early 20th century France, a young woman (Laetitia Casta) grows up wishing to become a veterinarian, unheard of at that time. In this unique story, a black wolf that she rescued as a child returns the favor after she is injured and stranded after a plane crash. Americans might not consider this family fare, largely due to a bared breast and graphic nature scenes (there is no human sex), but this is the kind of story just about anybody older than 10 would find fascinating.
Another film screened Friday, Swiss director Léa Frazer's "What If …? (Notre univers impitoyable)," proved to be a not-so-light but highly entertaining romantic comedy. A young couple is competing with each other for a partnership at their Paris law firm. The film goes back and forth, exploring what would happen if one, or the other, would win the position. Although there is a bit of French cynicism, the film is fascinating, funny and finally touching. Its stars, Alice Taglioni and Jocelyn Oivran, a real-life couple, discussed the film with the audience after the screening.
Cinemania continues to be on the cutting-edge of introducing French film to North America — and making it most accessible to English-speaking North Americans.