Vipère au poing

Vipère au poing (2004) (Viper in the Fist) was co-scripted and directed by Philippe de Broca. The story is based on a novel by Hervé Bazin. I saw this movie at the 2005 Cinefranco Film Festival in Toronto. (www.cinefranco.com)

Jean and Freddie are growing up in a château, under the loving care of their paternal grandmother. When she dies, their father returns from Vietnam with their mother and their young brother.

Within minutes, their mother displays her true colors, and within days she's made their life hell. Catherine Frot plays Paule Rézeau, who in a fairy tale would be the evil stepmother. Unfortunately, she's their biological mother, who totally dominates the boys, their father (played well by the late Jacques Villeret), and the entire household.

The chilling nature of this film stems not only from from maternal hatred, but from the fact that the boys are obviously good kids. They are prepared to love their mother and their brother, and to behave in an acceptable--even admirable--fashion.

Unfortunately, their situation leaves no room for maternal-child affection. What develops is open warfare on the mother's side, and guerrilla warfare on the part of the boys. The middle brother, Jean (Jules Sitruk) is particularly dedicated to opposing his mother's tyranny, and he's very good at it.

The movie has scenes that are humorous, and some warm and touching moments between father and sons, but the basic tone is dark and menacing. It's not a warm movie that will leave you with a glow of contentment, but it's well written, directed, and acted, and definitely worth seeing.

Nice film for Philippe de Broca. This is his last film. It is not the adventure film or the adventure comedy that made him known and carried him through his career. It is a more intimate film. Between children, between children and parents, between parents, between employees and others. With the qualities of his cinema: a subtle direction of actor, accurate female characters. With at work here the young actors and Catherine Frot.

The film also has a historical and societal interest on the way of life of this provincial bourgeois family, which has its money and personal problems, embodied by Jacques Villeret as an entomologist poltroon and by Catherine Frot as a psychorigid.

This is an appallingly inept film made by a production team who did not respect or even understand the source novel. It is a book about hate and poverty and pain. The whole point of the novel is that the mother corrupts the boy into being as slyly evil as she is. The director plays this as comedy! complete with dropped trouser gags, crass blue lighting, and ubiquitous crashes of thunder to complete the farce. The whole is completely miscast by a team of poor players who have the subtlety of sledgehammers. The film is full of crass moments which aren't in the book, such as the dreadful wink-wink wraparound. The ending has been changed! and made happy! Watch instead the 1971 version, which is true to the spirit and the themes of the original novel, with perfect settings and a magnificent cast, playing with the right amount of seething resentment and ripening rage. The only flaw with the 1971 film is that it is too short.

Vipère au poing is a french novel telling the childhood of the author Hervé Bazin. As a young boy, Bazin was confronted with his mother who was a tyrant. She had imposed a very tough way of life in the family manor. For instance, during the winter, she had forbidden any heater in the bedrooms of her children. She was finally nicknamed by them "Follcoche" for Folle (mad) and Cochonne (pig).

In 1971, a first film from the book had been shot for TV with Alice Sapritch playing the mother. At this time, the french viewers had been impressed by her acting.

Thirty years later, there is this new adaptation by Philippe de Broca. If you forget Alice Sapritch and equally the book, you can be enjoyed by the movie. Admittedly, there are some flaws in the Broca film. You can discuss the acting or you can find the voice off unpleasant. But this film is nice, it's enjoyable to see it. And it is not boring at any moment. It's too rare in the french cinema nowadays, not to be underlined.

Vipere au poing is one of the classics of French literature. It is studied at school, and I defy any person who starts to read it to finish it unscathed. It is the story of the relentless hate of a mother towards her children. It shows that the aim of her life is to destroy their spirits, to break their wills. And there is no happy ending, she really hates them.To be able to play this "tour de force" you need a first class actress. I admire very much Catherine Frot, but unfortunately for her, I had seen before a first version of this book, filmed for the French television in the 70s, and Mrs Sapritch made this role hers for life, at least for me. It did not stop me from also buying this film in DVD, as it is always interesting to see how two different set of actors, 30 years apart, manage around the same idea. So, my advice is see them both and make your mind up. Regretfully, the 70s version is only available in French and in region 2 (Europe) DVD.