La Tendresse

Gently-paced family road trip as divorced parents drive from Brussels to the Alps to collect their son following a skiing accident.  A series of mundane incidents and interactions provide windows into the personalities of the characters - particularly the dreamy, accident-prone mother and the macho, slightly boorish but generally endearing father.  

The warm human interactions are contrasted by repeated scenes of empty spaces, snowfields, mountains, lakes, farmland and views of architecture that generally dwarfs the humans moving through it (freeway overpasses, highways snaking up mountainsides, the brutalist architecture of the ski resort).  Like many road trips, nothing really ever happens, but the journey is a pleasant one.

I saw this film at the Leiden International Film Festival (LIFF) 2013. The story seems simplistic and nothing out of the ordinary, yet carries ample interesting material and entertaining developments, all of that within a journey from Belgium to the Alpes and back home again to Brussels. The movie opens with a long skiing scene, that abruptly ends with an accident. It serves only as a prologue to introduce the repatriation ride, how it came about that the main characters undertook such a ride in the first place.

Who chooses this film while assuming it is about skiing, will be disappointed. The majority of the scenes are shot within the narrow confines of a car, and to a lesser extent in hotels. The term road movie may work partly as characterization of this movie, but only when looking from the outside. It would be misleading, however, since the center of attention is on the people in the car and in the hotels, and particularly how they interact with each other.

An over-simplification of the scenario is as follows. Main characters Frans and Lisa separated 15 years ago, but jointly undertake a repatriation ride for their son who had a ski accident. Anything can happen during the many hours inside the car, be it a mixture of reliving old memories (good and bad), hefty arguments about old issues, or even one of them stepping out of the car halfway, apparently unable to (re)join forces after so many years having lived separate lives. The son in question also receives a fair share of scenes, but considerably less than the two parents. We observe the son and his new girl friend before the four of them meet. And of course the son has his role as family member returning home, actually being the very target of this repatriation journey in the first place, but still of relatively minor importance.

Admittedly, above description is far from adequate. It falsely suggests that nothing interesting happens, only a couple of rows, lots of hugging, and a fair amount of tittle-tattle in between. Luckily we see rather the opposite, by virtue of an effective script that makes it all work out very differently. The end result is not only interesting due to the interactions between the main characters, but also the humor interwoven in the proceedings makes this movie worthwhile. Take for instance the evasive maneuvers that Frans and Lisa try, in order to avoid sleeping together in a double bed in the last available room of an otherwise fully booked hotel. And people interested in road movies may grab their interesting details underway (not belonging to that group, I'm not sure about this aspect).

All in all, as my expectations (see above) were moderate, euphemistically speaking, after reading the synopsis on the festival website, I was very relieved to see my fears disappearing while the movie progressed. The interactions between the father, mother and son were unexpectedly interesting, very different from the clichés one might assume in the given situation. And in sparse moments when there were only roads and mountains to drive along, extra characters were thrown in to liven up the situation, like for example the hitchhiking fisherman on his way to Hamburg. As a result, there were no dull moments where I wanted to consult my watch. All this is due to the excellent performance of the main actors. They are sympathetic to us from start to finish, in spite of some nasty habits they show, which they don't hesitate to point out to each other, and also in spite of some less politically correct comments about people they meet. On the other hand, all of this only shows their real nature, and this is a good thing in a movie that relies on its main characters and their behavior.

From its opening shot tracking two skiers gracefully winding their way down an alpine slope to its gentle, perfect ending, Marion Hansel's lovely gem of a film is a surprisingly affecting portrait of love, both romantic and filial.

The above-mentioned opening shot, breathtaking and disarming, is immediately interrupted by the sound of a crash, as we cut in close to discover that one of the figures has fallen. "It's broken for sure," Jack bluntly tells his companion. "Call for help." This simple opening sets in motion a very poignant and tender tale.

The young man, it turns out, has been working as a ski instructor in Flaine for the past couple of months. Although his injury occurs in France, he is actually from Belgium, where his separated parents Frans and Lisa still live.

Early in the morning, Lisa wakes up to the alarming telephone call informing her that her son is in the hospital. Though the injury does not appear to be too serious, she is naturally concerned, as any parent would be. She relays the news to her ex-husband, and the two decide to make the nine hour drive to Flaine to bring their son home.

The odd couple, at once so different yet at the same time magnificently complimentary, set off at 6:30am and have a journey full of nostalgia, regret and more than their fair share of minor catastrophes. We can see exactly why they were once in love and understand instantly that they very well may still be.

Finally they reunite with their son, meet his girlfriend Alison, enjoy a couple of meals together, and then pack his things into the car and head back to Brussels. It's as simple as that. No major plot twists, no big, emotional scenes and, best of all, no fanciful or unbelievable happy endings—just a series of everyday conversations between real people, highlighting both their attractive and less-than-savory qualities.

Full of wit and humor, the film is almost picaresque in nature, as little vignettes unfold to show new aspects of each relationship: ex- husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, mother and child, father and son. Hansel finds comedy and poignancy in equal measure in the sometimes awkward, sometimes touching situations in which her characters unexpectedly find themselves.

The cast members all breathe life and truth into their characters, especially the magnificent Marilyne Canto as Lisa and Olivier Gourmet as Frans. In a small cameo, Spanish actor Sergi Lopez also contributes a memorable performance as a hitch hiker.

In the end, it's true, perhaps little has changed in the lives of the characters, but as Bourvil croons the title tune over the closing credits, the lovely, quiet truths of the story resonate to confirm what a special film has just ended. And what a perfect title the author has chosen for her tale.

Lise and Frans have divorced some years ago and have begin thier new lives.Their son Jack had a skiing accident and they must bring him back to Belgium.So Lise and Frans meet again en Belgium and begin their journey to the French Alps: they tease themselves, the are sometimes ironic, but also they feel little by little a tenderness for each other (the title of the film).I enjoyed very the performances of Marilyne Canto (Lise) and Olivier Gourmet (Frans).It's a fillm full of freshness, tendress and also a touch of humour.

EightyProof has already done a great job describing the specialness of this film, but I wanted to add a little more. Tenderness was shown last weekend as part of the annual French Film Festival at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. One of last year's films, The Minister , cemented my fascination for Olivier Gourmet's effortless acting style, so I made sure to see this piece, but little did i know that the real highlight of the film would be the character of as portrayed by the utterly delightful Marilyne Canto. For me, the film was really about HER. Whether that was the director's intention, I don't know, but while i was watching, it was as if I could FEEL the director becoming enamored of this enigmatic and charming Tinker Belle. Throughout the film, she just has this endearing slight smile that guides and protects her through life as she embraces the new and unknown at every turn. Not in any major situations, just in all the little moments of life.

After it kept revisiting my consciousness the next day, I said to my husband, "You know, it's a shame; i think Olivier/Franz was the real loser in that divorce. But he clearly never understood her or that it was his loss....." .