Y aura-t-il de la neige à Noël?

A real document of the life on a farm in southern France. The kids are playing so good, as if it was their life what they play! The feeling of the real life is also underlined because there isn´t film music. You have the feeling as if you are looking a documentation.

Almost irredeemably dull. This movie reeks of subsidy, but not just the European Union Common Agricultural Policy kind. Would this film ever get made on a purely commercial decision basis? I doubt it, because it is "worthy" only because it covers rural poverty. It is not entertaining. It is not innovative. It is not great art. It is simply "worthy". But not, in my opinion, worth investing two hours of your life into seeing. Will it send you to sleep? It did that job for me.

Thank you to viewers who stayed to the end, that's what the credits say!

It is true that some people left the house after twenty minutes. I have felt amazed, puzzled, wondered, what a beautiful movie! What a strange movie to!

Usually the screenplay, or the director, takes the spectator in consideration and explains to the viewers what it is all about. Not here: suddenly, you are in this farm, people live their lives, don't seem to realize you are there, they work and play and toil, and laugh and cry, and you are still there and you have to make it up for yourself. And you would like so much to be in the screen with them, and talk to them and try to help, and love them, and... and.. and.. And you are hot in the summer and you are so cold in the winter when she picks cabbages (or is it celeriac?) If I refer to Pierrot le Fou, it is because I have not seen anything so different and so catching since.

Thank you, thank you for such a beautiful movie. I'm so glad you ran out of gas!

Set in the rural Southern France of the 70's, this partly autobiographical movie chronicles a year in the life of a mother and her seven children, all working in the fruit and vegetable farm owned by the father, a handsome domestic tyrant who has another "official" family in a nearby town. The beauty of this film lays in its apparent simplicity, that mixes an almost documentary approach (the depiction of country life is nothing like you usually see in movies ; it was shot in continuity from summer to winter) with something close to the magic of a fairy tale. It's life, it's perhaps as realistic is it can be, and yet it's transmuted in something else. The happy, carefree children are endangered elves, and the only protection for these `little ones' (who don't seem to have individual names) is the warm, thick mantle of love offered by their dignified queen of a mother, who, in turn, can hardly resist the animal attraction of her `ogre'. Fortunately, there is no drama, no pathos, no hysteria, no violence shown. They're not necessary because we know what's going on. Instead, other images, like those of the children playing in the hay or running under a plastic cover, or the final shot have already turned this movie into an instant classic.

Since Y AURA-T-IL DE LA NEIGE A NOEL? often appears to be a documentary, the film succeeds in reflecting the gritty realism of French farming society, the plight of the minorities working in it (particularly women and children), and the dysfunctional families this society spawns. These are universal themes. They are played out primarily by a young mother of seven children, shamelessly exploited as farmhands by her man, who has a "legitimate family" in a nearby village. Their daily life is very naturally exposed on film, accentuated by the changing nuances of the different seasons of the year, ending in winter, during "Noel" or Christmas. All this, however, sounds a lot better than it plays on the screen. Even at 90 minutes, the film seems overly long, and is tedious watching for most audiences. There may not be a more captivating way to address these issues, but ultimately, it is a bore for all but die-hard fans of the social realism genre.