La fille d'un soldat ne pleure jamais

"A soldier's daughter never cries" by James Ivory presents us with an interesting story about fine aspects of human relationships with really impressive acting. The film is divided into three segments - "Billy", "Francis" and "Daddy". Each containing the protagonist Channe's experiences with three men in her life - her adopted brother, her school friend and her father respectively. The film shows how these experiences let her become gradually mature... emotionally, sexually and also in terms of personality.

Acting is exceptional in this film. The first segment shows the time right after the brother, Billy, being adopted when he was 7 years old. Channe was also 7 at that time and the child actress who played her (Luisa Conlon) really deserves our praise. In the next two segments Channe (14 and 17 yrs respectively) was brilliantly portrayed by Leelee Sobeiski who is much responsible for the rather reserved nature of the character. Kris Kristofferson does a solid job as the father. His character is an unique one, as evident not only by the words he spoke, but also by Kristofferson's accent and expressions. Among the other actors Jesse Bradford is worth mentioning as Billy is last two segments. The actor who played Francis in "Francis" brings too much dramatic persona in my opinion. Though arguably that's one of the best things about the character. And there's also a nice extended cameo by Virginie Lledoyen as Billy's biological mother.

Now about the characters and screenplay. Though stated from Channe's point of view, her father is the major influential character in this film. It was always his decisions, his outlook towards life that affected his family. The character of Channe is somehow very interesting. Her experiences with womanhood and men are written in an unique manner. And how she develops into a warm, soft-spoken yet determined personality is clearly something that Ivory spent time on. On the other hand Billy is a rather shy and quite unimpressive character with no apparent personal feature that should be rendered as a quality. Now Channe's school friend Francis has all the unusual features - he's an opera singer, loves to dance puppets, has a really corky sense of humor and his mother is an existentialist. His relationship with Channe is one of the film's major assets. All the characters are quite multi-layered, even Billy. The script is also masterfully written. A nice example is the conversation between Channe's father and her High School boyfriend Keith. I don't understand French that well so can't comment about the French dialogues though.

Actually, it is a film that is bound to be enjoyed if seen in a special mood. I'm lucky that I had that mood when it was showing on TV. Also it is a film that grows wonderfully with time, segment after segment. It's a really good coming-of-age story that should be considered as Ivory's one of the best works.

This is one of those plotless films that is more portraiture than story - which is to say it's like many French films. And in fact the film starts in French. Yes, things do happen, but episodically, by way of illustration , not in relation to any central, continual story.

What interested me in retrospect was WHY it's plotless, and what that says about the kind of portrait being drawn here.

The film is putatively about the protagonist, whom we see from childhood through adolescence. But in fact it is a carefully drawn study of that classic ideal, the Honest and Just Man. In this case, her father, based on the novelist James Jones (played by Kris Kristofferson, whose craggy face so suits the ideal in question that he hardly has to speak.)

Most of the incidents serve to demonstrate one of two points: that her father is deeply loving and understanding, and a bit unconventional (as is her mother), and that the family - which includes her adopted French brother - is close and loving despite being outsiders both in France and the US. We also see scattered images of her sexual awakening (which includes some early promiscuity), but even these in the end say more about her father than her.

The film's greatest strength is, in fact, this portrait of a family united in unconditional love, which endures even after the father's death. This image - certainly a profoundly tempting ideal to many of us - lingers after the film is over and is its most satisfying element. And in fact the film stayed with me well after I'd seen it, and I could recommend it to many viewers on that basis.

But… why is a film with four characters, rich in emotion, devoid of a central plot?

Because it's devoid of a central conflict. The father is relentlessly understanding and loving; the daughter is relentlessly grateful. Meanwhile , it's clear, even in this idealized portrait, that both parents drink (a lot). The daughter's attachment to another outsider at one school and her sexual acting out at another are never really examined. Yet they suggest something far more difficult and conflicted than a happy childhood. Certainly, the known effects of growing up with alcoholic are barely acknowledged, much less highlighted.

Perhaps this was a conscious decision, an attempt to avoid an aspect that of course is overdone in much contemporary drama. But certainly it points to SOME drama at the heart of this family, some conflict that might have more productively been examined and used as a guiding thread. (Even the simple fact of adoring a 'perfect' father has its own inherent conflicts, as was beautifully shown in "Eve's Bayou.")

So what we end up with is an ideal, and certainly the hunger for ideals is real enough. But here I felt too that it was a missed opportunity, an attempt to portray perfection at the expense of achieving resolution.

I read the reviews that people gave of this movie and I don't understand why they wanted so much character development and resolution. I thought that the characters were fine. They were a little underdeveloped but they seemed alright. I think that people didn't like the slowness of the movie perhaps. I thought that the slowness of the movie was its strength. I didn't mind that things were left unresolved. I would rather have a movie that leaves some things unanswered than answers all the questions. I thought it was a great movie. It wasn't too flashy or anything, quite simple, well edited, and it allowed the characters to breathe and be themselves. I thought it was wonderful for that. The characters were very natural and just were themselves which I enjoyed. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants a movie which might provoke a little discussion about parents and the relationships within a family. I thought the relationships within the family were nice and appropriately complex while at the same time sometimes unexamined, which is a lot like life I think. Well, I would thoroughly recommend this movie to anyone. It is a sedate and quiet and really feels like a French movie.

Let the cyber reader beware! Reading the summary as well as the first User Comment about this movie, "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, which I viewed recently [2004], stunned a 4-letter word out of my mouth. These two viewers seem blissfully unaware of any knowledge of James Jones or his times. Nor do they show even a basic appreciation for film or narrative methods. If they cannot support their assertions about the film--that it is "emotionless" for instance--with some reference to accepted standards of drama or acting, we must assume that they know no better. My question is this: why does such an important site for movie-lovers accept such limited summations of films to remain on the site?

This is an sensitive exploration of the family and place. I noticed that Bill Willis was the only father in the picture, Billy and Francis did not have fathers. As a coming of age movie it really worked- for not only does Channe lose some of her innocence- it starts in the tree house- she also is able to accept her coming into adult status- as is evidenced by dumping the jock and losing some of her self-centeredness. I loved the character of Francis- boy/not sexually threatening- yet freeing for Channe by the fact of his flamboyance. Most of the parts of this movie fit together well- there is enough dichotomy- the mother can throw sand in the sadistic teacher's face, but she also crumbles at the death of an unborn child. Like us the characters are both strong and weak. At first I was bothered by the lack of reference to Vietnam- then I realized neither Billy nor Channe would be that affected like those of us who lived through that period. Most of all, Soldier's Daughter moved me to thinking how parents really influence their children. Any movie that foregoes bombs for thought is tops in my book.