Typisch Familie!

If like me you like French films, you will like this one. There is no

plot to speak of and no time wasted in car-chases and violent action

sequences. There is just fascinating dialogue and the interaction of

intereresting characters, plus the expression of real emotion and

nuances of feeling. There is an intimacy with the characters that is

typically French and which the Americans rarely achieve. At the end of

the film you feel you know and understand these people and are wiser for

having known them.

I loved the performance of Catherine Frot in the film, She was delicious

and made the character of Yolande incredibly appealing and lovable.

What a crying shame she should have shackled herself to such a

self-centred, unappreciative husband. He was the luckiest man alive and

yet too obtuse to realize it. Hows appallingly sad.

The high-light of the film for me was the little dance Yolande had with

the quiet, philosophic bar-man Denis, played by Jean-Pierre Darroussin,

who, revealing his kind heart, offered to dance with her when her

insensitive husband refused - despite the fact that it was supposed to

be her birthday celebration. Denis's skillful dancing surprised them all, and disclosed a whole new

aspect of his personality. There is a touching moment at the bar when

Yolande, suspecting Betty's romantic interest and trying to encourage

it, says to her with a lovely winsome expression; `He's a good dancer.' And at the end of the film when Betty and Denis are seen to declare

their love for each other, she says delightedly, to the chagrin of her

snobbish and spiteful mother-in-law; `You know what this means? It means

he's going to be

The IMDb summary reads: "An upper middle-class French family celebrates a birthday in a restaurant. In one evening and during one meal, family history, tensions, collective and separate grudges, delights, and memories both clash and coalesce." Well, that's right but "upper-class" could be misleading. Upper middle-class, maybe. One brother is an executive, number 4 in a Silicon Valley type firm, but the other runs the bar -- it's more a bar than a restaurant, from what we see -- and it's no great success, more a sign of Henri's lack of ambition (that's Jean-Pierre Bacri) and the sister (Agnès Jaoui) works as an underling at the firm, and her boyfriend is the barman and she seems totally without ambition even to marry, at 30. The exec's wife is a rather ditsy blonde lady. One gets the impression that the family is somewhat going to seed. Henri's wife has just left him, Betty can't commit to anything, Philippe's totally insecure, their mom is a pain... This was a play written by Jaoui and Bacri and is full of their delicious dry humor, pettiness and grumpiness and keen social and psychological observation. I found it very funny but at the same time a bit depressing and somewhat static, since it's a play. To underline the static quality, one of the "charicters" is Caruso, a paralyzed dog. It doesn't "open up" as the 2000 Le goût des autres/The Taste of Others and the 2004 Comme une image/Look at Me do; on the other hand, the focus on personalities is even more precise. The "air" is bad air, but things don't end on a too unhappy note in this gentle, ironic comedy. Now that I'm following French dialogue more carefully, I enjoyed this a lot, including the social nuances I could catch about who gets called "tu" and who gets called "vous" and when. Klapisch keeps the camera moving but unobtrusive, adding a childhood flashback perhaps once too often, framing the story with a street panorama and a warm musical theme. To call Bacri "grumpy" may be redundant. I'm not sure what led Klapisch (who from L'Auberge espagnole seems to have a more lighthearted outlook himself) to direct this, and for Jaoui to start directing her writing with Bacri afterwards with Taste of Others and Look at Me.

The DVD by Fox Lorber is of unusually poor quality. You can't turn the subtitles on and off, and they came out half below the screen. There are virtually no extras.

If like me you like French films, you will like this one. There is no plot to speak of and no time wasted in car-chases and violent action sequences. There is just fascinating dialogue and the interaction of interesting characters, plus the expression of real emotion and nuances of feeling. There is an intimacy with the characters that is typically French and which the Americans rarely achieve. At the end of the film you feel you know and understand these people and are wiser for having known them.

I loved the performance of Catherine Frot in the film. She was delicious and made the character of Yolande incredibly appealing and lovable. What a crying shame she should have shackled herself to such a self-centred, unappreciative husband. He was the luckiest man alive and yet too obtuse to realise it. How appallingly sad.

The high-light of the film for me was the little dance Yolande had with the quiet, philosophic bar-man Denis, played by Jean Pierre Darroussin, who, revealing his kind heart, offered to dance with her when her insensitive husband refused - despite the fact that it was supposed to be her birthday celebration. Denis's skillful dancing surprised them all, and disclosed a whole new aspect of his personality. There is a touching moment at the bar when Yolande, suspecting Betty's romantic interest and trying to encourage it, says to her with a lovely winsome expression; "He's a good dancer." And at the end of the film when Betty and Denis are seen to declare their love for each other, she says delightedly, to the chagrin of her snobbish and spiteful mother-in-law; "You know what this means? It means he's going to be part of the family."

I was enthralled by this filmed play of an evening in the life of a family driven to a peak of "dysfunction," but through it all held together by the glue of love, however imperfect (as it always is).

The movie is a comedy in the sense that it makes you laugh at, with, and sometimes in spite of the kaleidoscopic display of personal and interpersonal flaws, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities that it illuminates through its crack cast of closely observed and defined characters. Few if any of them fails to reveal a different side to their personality with each turn of the kaleidoscope. These are complex people - just like the real kind. And the fact that the script, the camera, and the direction simultaneously lay bare their suffering/insufferable humanity (and their unique virtues) while evoking sympathy, fondness, and identification with each one of them is what, to my mind, raises Un Air de Famille from the level of good artistry to that of redeeming social value: art with a heart.

Syd Baumel

The movie "Cuisines et Dépendances" (1993) had revealed Jean Pierre Bacri/Agnès Jaoui's original talent. Here, "un air de famille" (1996) which is once again an adaptation of a play written by the duo constitutes a kind of extension and especially a clear improvement for them. This movie made by Cédric Klapisch is very superior to the first quoted movie although "Cuisines et dépendances" is a worthy work. The meeting Bacri-Jaoui-Klapisch shines to delivers a stunning flick. It is difficult to tell because it is so rich and crowded with incident that it would take several pages to sum it up. So, to tell you the main reasons that justify the vision of this film, I will go to the essential.

3 things confer to the movie a strong appeal. First, the scriptwriters have the remarkable gift to make sparks fly from the single cue and to let what is left unsaid and the suggested leak out. Dialogs are also their best weapon to revamp the middle-class' image but also to harm the characters' meanness and faults. This last feature enables to Bacri and Jaoui to distinguish themselves in the French comedy. It is their recognizable stamp to disclose certain faults that we have inside us but which we really don't want to admit. In this way, it is quite easy to identify with the characters. We have a little "air de famille" with them.

But "un air de famille" is also worth for Klapisch's accurate making with an outstanding work on the lighting effects. The lighted café contrasts with the dark restaurant in the background of the scenery. Moreover, the split of the family amazingly answers to the dreary aspect of the scenery. Little by little, the film becomes a stifling In Camera tempered by a few sequences which relate childhood memories.

In another extent, there's another strong point from Klapisch: the directing of actors which is flawless and well studied. Personally I think it is a real treat to see Jean Pierre Bacri coming and going in his café, with his sullen look. Beside him, Catherine Frot is irresistible in her role of silly woman while Jean Pierre Darroussin is the sole stable character in the middle of this family which is slowly breaking up. He also tries to bring his support and comfort to the members.

"Un air de famille" is a smart and ferociously funny movie. Jean Pierre Bacri and Agnès Jaoui rank among the finest comical authors of the nineties and Cédric Klapisch can without problem join the group of the best French film-makers of his generation. Don't miss this movie which will give you another image of the French comedy.