Aria di famiglia

Mr. Klapisch continues to mark himself as one of the finest directors of his generation; with simple means, he tells tales which stick close to the bone of contemporary life, and he knows his territory quite well. This French family could not ring more true, and it is in the subtleties - such as the scenes of the "successful" son who is nonetheless hounded by the biting criticisms of his family - that Klapitch really distances himself from his contemporaries. There is little of the long-windedness or preciousness of some of the current flock of young directors, and his films never glibly mock their characters, which can leave more chilling - or uplifting - conclusions towards the end of their tales. It seems that every time a movie is adapted from a play people seem to harp on its "theatricality" - almost as a matter of course - yet this film works quite well on the screen, and the visual qualities of the storytelling are numerous, while the cinematography is superb throughout. I must also add that, despite the fact that we are discouraged from reacting to existing comments on this page, the comments of the reviewer from Dublin, Ireland are among the most ludicrous I have seen on these pages; Un Air de Famille - it is a superb title in French - is one of the finest films to come out of France in the last decade.

It is always interesting to read other peoples impressions and critics of movies and when I read the Darragh O'Donoghue's above comments about the film 'Un air de famille' - he (she?) already doesn't understand the title of the film which is full of double or triple meanings - I can't help but write down my very own impressions of the film.

It is clearly visible that the script was originally written for stage by using one single location for the film. The director of the film cleverly used the simple set(it's a low budget movie after all) to invoke a lively family meeting by setting up lots of different shots. His solution was to make the camera mostly invisible by not clinging to exaggerated camera moves or positions. By doing so he gives us the possibility to concentrate on the actors and their dialog. And what a pleasure that is to do. Step by step we get more and more involved and because it's somehow clear from the beginning that this piece is not about major surprises but about the subtle plays and conflicts happening between people who know each other for a long time, one is charmingly pulled into the story.

p.s. the subtitles are clearly readable. The 'banal' dialog between the family members has exactly the right dose of innuendoes and truthfulness.

A pleasure to watch.

The IMDb summary reads: "An upper middle-class French family celebrates a birthday in a restaurant. In one evening and during one meal, family history, tensions, collective and separate grudges, delights, and memories both clash and coalesce." Well, that's right but "upper-class" could be misleading. Upper middle-class, maybe. One brother is an executive, number 4 in a Silicon Valley type firm, but the other runs the bar -- it's more a bar than a restaurant, from what we see -- and it's no great success, more a sign of Henri's lack of ambition (that's Jean-Pierre Bacri) and the sister (Agnès Jaoui) works as an underling at the firm, and her boyfriend is the barman and she seems totally without ambition even to marry, at 30. The exec's wife is a rather ditsy blonde lady. One gets the impression that the family is somewhat going to seed. Henri's wife has just left him, Betty can't commit to anything, Philippe's totally insecure, their mom is a pain... This was a play written by Jaoui and Bacri and is full of their delicious dry humor, pettiness and grumpiness and keen social and psychological observation. I found it very funny but at the same time a bit depressing and somewhat static, since it's a play. To underline the static quality, one of the "charicters" is Caruso, a paralyzed dog. It doesn't "open up" as the 2000 Le goût des autres/The Taste of Others and the 2004 Comme une image/Look at Me do; on the other hand, the focus on personalities is even more precise. The "air" is bad air, but things don't end on a too unhappy note in this gentle, ironic comedy. Now that I'm following French dialogue more carefully, I enjoyed this a lot, including the social nuances I could catch about who gets called "tu" and who gets called "vous" and when. Klapisch keeps the camera moving but unobtrusive, adding a childhood flashback perhaps once too often, framing the story with a street panorama and a warm musical theme. To call Bacri "grumpy" may be redundant. I'm not sure what led Klapisch (who from L'Auberge espagnole seems to have a more lighthearted outlook himself) to direct this, and for Jaoui to start directing her writing with Bacri afterwards with Taste of Others and Look at Me.

The DVD by Fox Lorber is of unusually poor quality. You can't turn the subtitles on and off, and they came out half below the screen. There are virtually no extras.

If like me you like French films, you will like this one. There is no

plot to speak of and no time wasted in car-chases and violent action

sequences. There is just fascinating dialogue and the interaction of

intereresting characters, plus the expression of real emotion and

nuances of feeling. There is an intimacy with the characters that is

typically French and which the Americans rarely achieve. At the end of

the film you feel you know and understand these people and are wiser for

having known them.

I loved the performance of Catherine Frot in the film, She was delicious

and made the character of Yolande incredibly appealing and lovable.

What a crying shame she should have shackled herself to such a

self-centred, unappreciative husband. He was the luckiest man alive and

yet too obtuse to realize it. Hows appallingly sad.

The high-light of the film for me was the little dance Yolande had with

the quiet, philosophic bar-man Denis, played by Jean-Pierre Darroussin,

who, revealing his kind heart, offered to dance with her when her

insensitive husband refused - despite the fact that it was supposed to

be her birthday celebration. Denis's skillful dancing surprised them all, and disclosed a whole new

aspect of his personality. There is a touching moment at the bar when

Yolande, suspecting Betty's romantic interest and trying to encourage

it, says to her with a lovely winsome expression; `He's a good dancer.' And at the end of the film when Betty and Denis are seen to declare

their love for each other, she says delightedly, to the chagrin of her

snobbish and spiteful mother-in-law; `You know what this means? It means

he's going to be

The obvious 'filmed play' style enhanced this for me - there would have been little to gain by making it more of a movie. Wonderful character development and fantastic acting. A disturbing portrait of a dysfunctional family - exaggerated slightly to play to the back of the house, but not too much.