Rémi - sein größtes Abenteuer

A really beautiful movie with good acting and a good story

Writer and sometimes movie director Hector Marlot's SANS FAMILLE has a following among generations of young readers who grew up with it. It seems to inspire a film version every decade, including a silent made by the author.

I hadn't previously encountered it myself and it reaches me as something from the class end of the Kid Film Spectrum, with the handsome surface of current costume adventure films like LES TROIS MOUSKETEERS - here scaled down.

The plausibly ten year old hero is an orphan whose rural travels bring him into the care of Itinerant musician Dan Auteuil, with his pet monkey and particularly winning dog. Rather than stay as a companion to grow into servant for the ill girl on the nice river barge, the boy sets out to find his real mother, encountering angry wolves and menacing fraudsters in a derelict town house from which he must be saved. Mix in a bit of Dickens and Stevenson.

The makers find room for assured players like Valerie Ledoyen and Jacques Perin matched by equally effective unknowns. Grand parents with conservative taste will feel they've done the right thing showing this one to children dumped in their care.

I watched this film in italian, could not totally follow every small details but in general i follow the main plots, stll i cried a lot at the end of the film. The main actor Maestro in this film is unbeatable, music is really good. We find sympathy with the character Remi because he is like a ball, being kicked to different persons, from here to there, it is not something he can choose as it is destiny...an orphan is borned to be unlucky. Yet he is lucky to be in the hand of a great guy, who is looking for paying off his sin of mistakenly killed his own son and wife. The character of this boy is surely not as attractive as the Maestro, but he take active role in choosing his own destiny (once in Lisa home and the other time is when he was sent to the family which pretend to be his). This boy choose letting Maestro to go and cure his disease instead of crying in front of Maestro to take him away from this horrible family. Remi shows love and sacrifices to Maestro rather than a spoiled and selfish kid, and that makes him to be a great person in the future, and that is also why Maestro loves him to an extent that he did not care anymore about his own health an return to save him from the horrible family. Even though i found a bit cliche at the end of the film that actually Remi is borned in a rich family, i still love this film. This is a story mainly focuses on plot and characters building, our family enjoyed a lot. Thanks for the producer and director!

Remi Sans Famille: We recorded this movie on the strength of Daniel Auteuil mentioned on the credit and also for our grandchildren due to spend some time with us during their school holiday.

(This did not happen thanks to Covid 19!) But we had a look at it recently.

"Sans Famille" rang a bell in my mind from my youth days but I could not recall it at all. Did I read the book or heard it on radio as a weekly session, I just don't know anymore.

I have to say though, I found the film rather disappointing and surprised it scores an average of 7+.

Despite living the end of my 8th decade I still do find children's story very enjoyable. Recently I have seen Belle and Sebastien X3, Heidi, The school of life with much pleasure. (again thanks to C19!) So what went wrong for me with "Remi Nobody's Boy"? It had one of my favourite actor, a cute kid and such a nice setting (yes, without knowing I felt the area was within the "Massif Central", (old mountains in the centre of France) where I spent only one Summer vacations with my boarding school crowd. A wonderful area that left such nice memories in my mind despite the short experience it was. I also loved Capi the dog and Rousette the cow, not so sure about Jolie Coeur the monkey!

But perhaps what got my nose out of joint was I felt the story was also a little out of joint. It is quite all over the place (yet speaking French!). The old man telling his story as a kid did not work for me. I would have much prefer to get it straight as it happened. Then the unthinkable happens... And this again did not work for me, perhaps it did and will for others.

...Struggling to exhaustion in the snow with a burning lamp? Then a nice camp fire, again on the snow, made pretty pictures but seemed a little unnatural.

I would also say the outcome is pretty predictable, which I have to concede is not always a bad thing.

However I have seen plenty well touted movies which left my friends and I rather confused. Perhaps I was expecting too much and may have, also, got up on the wrong side of the bed on that particular day!

I hope it will be a better experience for you.

The main actor performs excellently and the music is perfect. The film has pruned some parts of the former plot in order not to make it too long (I guess) though it is a good one to see.