Ce qui nous lie

People who love wine will have a lot of reasons to like Cédric Klapisch' film 'Ce qui nou lie' (the English title is 'Back to Burgundy'). The landscape of Burgundy beautifully filmed during all the seasons of the year is the setting of a story whose heroes are people who not only make a living from wine, but wine is all they know and want to do, a tradition that they inherited for many generations, on properties that pass from grandfather to father to son and daughters. It's beautifully filmed, with a lot of technical and craft details, described with respect and dedication. I love wine, so I liked very much this facet of the film. Yet, 'Ce qui nou lie' is more than this.

Director Cédric Klapisch demonstrated in previous movies like (especially) L'auberge espagnole or Chinese Puzzle that he knows and likes to build family and relationship melodramas, with credible characters that he makes us care about. This is what he also tries to do here, but in this case he seems to gather too many intrigues that do not fit that well one with the other: we have an over-the-years brothers reunion, a father-son relation that keeps being strained over the years and even after the death of the father, a land inheritance under pressure because of the decisions of the late father and taxes and economic pressure, generation conflicts and kids at the other side of the planet, etc. Some of these are better described, other are solved by sudden and less credible script writing tricks, my overall feeling was that none was that much important and you end asking yourself what was more important - the stories or the beautiful background and the style of life of the characters.

Fortunately, the film is helped by splendid acting. The roles of the three siblings are trusted to three actors I know less or not at all, Pio Marmaï, Ana Girardot, and François Civil and all three do a fine job. A few of the camera moves are really memorable (the departing silhouettes of the three brothers right after a flashback that showed them hugging together with their mother many years before, the bed scene with the elder brother and his girlfriend separated and brought together at the same time by their 5 years kid). Overall it's a satisfying film, with charming moments, a little too long, but there are more reasons than the love of wine to go and see it.

The beginning of the movie is particularly derivative: the would be black sheep of the family back in his native land after years around the world, this is as old as the hills , like the prodigal son of our Sunday school ;of course he thought his dad did not like him (which of course is not true),of course his marriage in Australia runs into difficulties ...cliché to end all the clichés...

Fortunately the movie has other qualities: the cinematography is splendid indeed ,filming on location in the Burgundy vineyard is awesome ;the grape harvest (with the exception of the scene when the harvesters fight with bunches of grapes ,a harvester would never do such a thing,and I know what I'm talking about!)atmosphere is well recreated ,particularly the feast which celebrates the end of the picking.

Besides ,the father who bequeaths his earth in jointly-held ownership to his children ,it's quite convincing : in Zola's "La Terre" , the father ,who was not still dead when he retired,did not go about it in a different way.

In fact,Juliette and Jeremie are much more endearing characters than their eldest sibling.Juliette is a modern woman, we perceive her firm independence of men ,when she leads her harvesters through her vineyard.Jérémie ,a family man ,is still under his father-in-law's thumb, a he-man who 's got plans for him . Juliette is not going to let herself be pushed around by this in-law who has his eye on her valuable property ;but it will take time before her brother rebels ,although stammering out his angry replies.

On the other hand ,when Jean 's wife and their adorable child appear ,all become so predictable that,without his siblings , the screenplay would lose much of its interest.

Beautiful pictures, but an uneven screenplay.

I loved this movie, and I think 'Retour en Bourgogne' is a must-see for people who love France. I enjoyed the seemingly simple and very charming camera-work It hides in fact a very dedicated vision of both director and camera workers.The actors are very good also, because they act naturally as if they are telling their own life story. Enough surprises to keep you stick to the story-line.I was part of this family in no time, and wanted to help them with all these questions that life brings up to us people, as we grow older. I would have liked to have such very nice family members as in this movie!!It never gets too sentimental, which could have easily happened. I liked the way different times and places were entangled. It was pure poetry!

If you have siblings, this movie is a great reflection and portrayal of the struggles we each face finding our way in the world but also growing and changing within the family unit. There's questions about acceptance, love, growing up (maturing) and the changing responsibilities where we go from being looked after as children, to looking after parents. I think each of us will see ourselves in one of the siblings. Cliched? Maybe, but its a good portrayal of family life and growing up.

It is a long movie, but I honestly didn't mind and I didn't find it tedious. The acting is superb. The scenery is beautiful and there's good character development along the way.

Family reunification in the beautiful countryside of Borgogne, France, where the two brothers and the sister meed themselves in the old family house among the vaste vineyards. They have to deal with the past and plan the future, following the father's death. Not really a compelling plot, but a pleasant family comedy, where the passion for wine is celebrated with continous tastings. The settings are suggestive and the product is well-finished.