Milch der Zärtlichkeit

Good thematic movie on a topic rarely discussed, the potential sudden drop of women after childbirth, that sort of depression or panic and that sometimes makes them flip out. What I find amazing in this film, in addition to this rare theme, is to see how human relationships, when they really are so, with such tenderness, are the basis of the healing process of mental or psychological discomfort. Even with these appearances of madness, the extreme human condition turns to the best with love, tenderness. When the mind falls back into that state of childhood, low awareness, low responsiveness to the world, when it is so overwhelmed, there is nothing like the milk of human kindness to take it out of its dysfunction. Psychoanalysis, in the rare corners or meanders of its complexity where one can still recognize the dignity of its mission, owes its small and rare successes to those times when it engaged into tracks where it has dared to accept the lesson of love and to let aside intellectual analysis that tends to judge and evaluate in the patient's place. Overall, this film is a message: if human beings can be grand enough to be tender to their neighbour and try to understand instead of judging, then we can see the birth and growth of a real human society, otherwise society becomes just a social mirage. Beautiful playing and directing. To see and to think carefully about.

Story: A woman leaves her family and newborn and hides with a neighbor.

Another typical French movie taken to the extreme: someone depressed does unexplained and unreasonable things. We don't quite know why she is that depressed.

The failure of the movie is that we don't really care to find out why. At some point, depression can be boring to watch. If the subject won't talk and behaves in a destructive manner, you can lose the viewer very quickly. This movie does.

The other problem with this movie is that that some key characters (the neighbors) also behave in incredible ways, only so that the story can continue. Would you host a depressive maniac in your house for multiple days, knowing their children are only meters away, and not say anything? It defies imagination. The movie, aware of this weakness, makes some attempt at justifying this behavior, but it's not convincing.

Overall, I don't recommend it.

This compelling film concerns the specific plight of a woman experiencing an excruciating episode of post partum depression, one that causes her to abandon her family and flirt with a complete breakdown. The author of the film has used this event to depict with stunning depth and understanding the underlying impulses, needs and desires of a whole range of characters, most particularly, a female neighbor of the depressed woman who takes her into her home and offers her unconditional support. The layers of insight run quite deep, taking the moviegoer into the lives of adults and children, into relationships between married couples, lovers (adulterous and otherwise), parents and children, friends and neighbors. There's a quality of empathy that the filmmaker clearly feels that she manages to convey on film. The camera never shies from dynamic close-ups of some very expressive faces. The acting is uniformly superb, creating characters that are real in an everyday sense without the slightest concession to glamour. The script is filled with small moments that ring absolutely true and that often resonate beyond the particulars of the film's plot. As a man, and a city dweller, who readily perceives the limits of my obligations to strangers in need, I had my consciousness raised as to just what the potential of unconditional empathy might be.

I really hate to be negative but, I could not see any redeeming features to this film. I could not identify with or care about any of the characters. The acting was often awkward and felt unrealistic even though the style of film-making was cinema-verite. The hand-held camera's motion was distracting and brought attention to itself. Loose and rambling editing with the camera teetering into extreme facial closeups unnecessarily. The film had pretentious moments and seemed to lead nowhere. There was plenty of potential to explore and possibly comment upon post-partum depression but this film seems only to have skimmed the surface and shown us many angry and confused people and nothing more. Pointless and boring.

Christelle recently gave birth to her third child, and one day is overwhelmed with motherhood and simply runs away. She ends up in the upstairs apartment of Claire, who is very sympathetic and lets Christelle stay even though she was planning to have a romantic evening with her married lover. Christelle's husband is forced to take care of the children, not knowing where she has gone. As the hours turn to days, Claire begins to wonder how long Christelle is going to continue imposing, and Christelle's husband also finds the situation increasingly difficult.

There are also other characters who make the story more complex, but, at least for me, didn't add much to the film. The acting by the adults is fine but nothing special, while the children seemed quite natural.

On the whole I would only recommend the film to people with a particular interest in the subject matter. Seen at the San Francisco International Film Festival on 4/29/2002.