Actualités

Title: I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive Directors: Claude Miller and Nathan Miller Starring: Vincent Rottiers, Annie Jouvet, Sophie Cattani, Christine Citti, Yves Verhoeven “I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive,” which played at the 2010 City of Lights City of Angels (Colcoa) Festival, is a stirring familial drama of simmering resentment, anchored by a searing performance from young Vincent Rottiers, whose piercing blue eyes and quiet intensity are enough to make one ruminate about a possible fraternal collaboration with Daniel Craig. The American version of these sorts of damaged-kid stories typically cedes all ambiguity in favor of pat cathartic redemption, but this gripping French import keeps an edge of violence and uncertainty about...

As beautiful to look at as it is unsettling, veteran French writer-director Claude Miller's "Class Trip" (La Classe de Neige) explores the morbid mind of a young boy on the occasion of a school outing to a mountain chalet, with the powerful presence of his disturbed father lurking in his dreams and fantasies.

Although it is a strong contender for awards here based on favorable reactions at the press screening, "Class Trip" is probably not destined to travel the U.S. distribution route, but it's a classy item for savvy festival programmers.

Reminiscent of the opening of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining", the film commences with an ominous aerial shot of a car driving into the mountains. In a flashback, it's revealed that shy, fragile Nicolas (Clement Van Den Bergh) is being driven to the school ski trip separately from his classmates by his over-protective salesman father (Francois Roy) in the wake of a horrible bus crash that dominated the news.

In other pointed observations, we learn that Nicolas' father tried to commit suicide and worries about gangs who lurk around public places looking to kidnap children and steal their internal organs. Suffering from a bed-wetting problem and plagued by violent dreams, Nicolas is awkward and tentative around his own kind, but he's befriended by more confident and popular Hodkann (Lokkman Nalcakan) in the beautiful, not-at-all threatening setting.

But Nicolas is suffering from the controlling influence of his father and wishes him ill. He has forgotten his bag in the trunk of the car and when his father does not return the next morning with it, Nicholas imagines the worst, a spectacular wreck. On a similar note, after giving Hodkann the chills with stories of kidney stealers, he dreams of a massacre at the chalet by hooded gunmen with his father the first victim.

In one murky sequence involving reality and dreams, Nicholas wanders into the snow at night and is locked out with potentially lethal results. Indeed, he dreams of his own death, but the companionable ski instructor (Yves Verhoeven) rescues him instead. When his father still fails to turn up with his suitcase and the story comes out of a child missing in the mountains, Nicholas' worst fears appear to becoming true.

Jarring and riveting in many sequences, "Class Trip" may not have a fashionable edge that explores every lurid and psycho-sexual angle of the premise. But thanks to the excellent performances, particularly from Van Den Bergh and Roy, Miller's film keeps one interested in the outcome of Nicholas' harrowing rite of passage.

LA CLASSE DE NEIGE

Les Films De La Boissiere

In co-production with Warner Bros., PECF-FR3 Cinema, Rhone Alpes Cinema and the participation of Canal Plus

CREDITS:

Screenwriter-director: Claude Miller

Executive producer: Annie Miller

Associate producer: Francis Boespflug

Based on the novel by: Emmanuel Carrere

Director of photography: Guillaume Schiffman

Set design: Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko

Editor: Anne Lafarge

Costumes: Jacqueline and Catherine Bouchard

CAST:

Nicolas: Clement Van Den Bergh

Hodkann: -Lokkman Nalcakan

The Father: Francois Roy

The Mother: Tina Sportolard

Patrick: Yves Verhoeven

Miss Grimm: Emmanuelle Bercot

Running Time: 96 minutes...