La classe de neige

Simply ,"la classe de neige" is Claude Miller's best work since "la meilleure façon de marcher" (1975,his debut).These works comprise intriguing similarities: both take place in a children community.The first movie,which featured the excellent Patrick Bouchitey and Patrick Dewaere,focused on two camp counselors ,and the dark side of their minds .Bouchitey's devils only woke up at night ,when he dressed up as a woman.His relationship with Dewaere was frighteningly intense and culminated in a violent scene in which the transvestite forced his pal to dance.Miller's sophomore effort "dites-lui que je l'aime" tackled deviancy again but he cheapened Patricia Highsmith's first-class thriller.Since,Miller made quite entertaining works ("garde à vue" which was remade as "under suspicion" ),endearing ones ("l'effrontée") ,and also pretentious ones ("mortelle randonnée" which was remade too).But he was never again able to equal his sensational first work,which seems as strong as it was a quarter of century ago.

But in 1998,he really outdid himself,and gave a stunning work ,the first to be on a par with "la meilleure façon de marcher".Should you give another title to "la classe de neige'" ,it could be " cries and whispers" .The title is incredibly trite "skiing with the school" and reveals none of the horrors the movie depicts.

Nicolas is a perturbed child probably because he's poisoned with protection by an omnipresent father;but it's not that much simple: the scene at the swimming pool shows another side of this monstrous daddy.The parents ' gathering before the class leaves for the mountains is realist to the core:I organized myself a lot of "classes de neige" and I can say I've met a lot of parents who fret about their dear little ones .Sometimes they refuse to sever the umbilical cord and the child -most of the time very disappointed- stays home.

Whispers:Nicolas lives in his own world where his demons never leaves him alone.His only moments of peace occur when he confides to his teacher,Miss Grimm (what a name!)-see how he refuses to talk to his mother on the phone -,or to the young man to whom he says :"when you think too hard about something,does IT happen"?,scary ,isn't it?).He finds a pal but the secrets he exchanges with him are so morbid and so terrifying it cannot bring him any help.Most of the time,the adults whisper behind closed doors,the gendarmes outside the bus,the teachers in their office.

Cries:we never see Nicolas scream, or even cry.His mind creates monsters ,at night when his nightmares come to visit him -these scenes make the audience think of an horror movie,which Claude Miller's work is not.He managed to blend dream and reality in such a subtle way that it's sometimes hard to tell them apart;take the central scene which climaxes the movie:Nicholas is out in the cold ,the snow's falling,and he cannot open the house's door.Then begins a series of dreams which show a child's fear of dying as never before.In the daylight,terrors do not fade away:Nicolas turns the TV screen into a mirror of his own horrible visions-this is not as strong as the nightmares scenes ,though,since this device has been used before-.

Claude Miller does not do what the audience expects:a Hollywoodian treatment would have solved the problems ,with a family happy again and plenty of violins in the background.There's an extremely moving scene :on the highway,in the restaurant ,the boy sees a young mom change her baby's diaper,then the proud couple leaves the place,as Nicolas' s eyes catch what happiness may look like.The ending will leave you completely numb:you are in front of a huge hole ,you do not know exactly what happened .It's perhaps even worse than you think it is.

A black fairy tale revisited by Bruno Bettelheim,a psychological drama, a thriller,"la classe de neige" is all this and so much more.

Emmanuel Carrière's eponymous book is highly recommended.

There are both problem children and problem parents. In this TV movie Nicolas has an over-protective father who will not allow his son to ride on the school bus on their holiday excursion to the mountains. He explains that there are criminals around who kidnap children from side-walks, playgrounds etc. Nicolas being a sensitive child elaborates on his father's fears and has regular bouts of day-dreaming as well as horrific nightmares. This makes interesting entertainment. I like the intercutting of dreams and reality. The horror mounts from scene to scene in a confusing mixture. Nicolas confides to his friend Hodkann that organised criminals pounce on children and cut out their kidneys and livers in mobile hospitals. Sad-faced Nicolas is convincing as the imaginative child. He tells Hodkann that he is an informer and that he helps his father in seeking out these traffickers in human organs. Nicolas also reads horror stories at bed-time. "The Monkey's Paw" scene is a brilliant piece of technical manipulation. Nicolas asks his tutor if it is possible to make things happen just by thinking hard enough about them. This theme is pursued in many scenes where Nicolas manipulates scenes on the television screen e.g. he imagines his father in an automobile accident. I have the feeling that Nicolas is a really mixed up kid and his psychological problems result in worrying bed-wettings. This is alluded to constantly. Clement van der Bergh with his sad and unsmiling face is admirable as young Nicolas, and in contrast we have his happy-go-lucky friend Hodkann in constant awe of Nicolas's imaginative stories. The film centres about their friendship and their adventures. Their warm relationship is convincing. An early scene (actually a nightmare) shows an assassination of virtually everyone by terrorists who attack the mountain lodge. Yes, it's an exciting film that keeps you awake to the end.

Much of the advance publicity for this quiet little slice of a child's life seem as if it's going to be sadism in the school and kids doing cloak and dagger work; neither is really true of this film, although there is a major discovery to be made as the main character (subtly etched by a preteen with an appealing sensitivity) negotiates his way among the strangers he is suddenly stuck with when his parents pop him down in a children's winter camp.

The lad has visions, but not without reason, and once seen, all the disparate pieces fit very nicely indeed; there is a fascinating music score that ranges from Rock to Rossini, and if I haven't said a good deal about what happens, it's because what happens to the boy is a mystery: the wish bracelet he wears tells the story. This is not a fast-paced thriller, but a contemplative voyage into a child's mind, crossed with elements of a classic mystery.

Most definitely one of the best movies I've ever seen, a bit on the strange side sometimes, but a very moving film. camera work excellent, the acting is amazing, and very well directed. not a well known movie, but a very good one.

Using dreams as a means of expressing a character's hidden fears and desires is an old trick, and Claude Miller overdoes it; there are probably more dream sequences than actual events in this movie. Some of them are startling (one involving a severed talking head, another a machine-gun massacre), but the story is boring (you don't have to be a detective to figure out the truth), and the kid is boring, too, with a fixed stare that never changes throughout the film (though it's probably not his fault, but Miller's). "La Classe De Neige" belongs in a subgenre that could be called "the world from a child's point of view", but doesn't make its way into the top of the list. (**)