La classe de neige

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. (**)

I agree with most other reviewers in liking this movie, but I disagree with almost everything they say about it. First of all, it is not hard to follow, nor is it at all hard to tell what is real and what is not. The plot is actually fairly simple, and warning that it is so complex that you have to watch it twice and answer half a dozen or more convoluted questions before you get it is absurd.

It's also absurd to imply that you have to understand Freudian psychobabble to understand this movie. I don't know why people think they have to make a movie sound so hard to watch when it is not hard to watch at all.

I also disagree that this is a sad, solemn movie, and that there's no humor in it. The humor is dark humor (very dark), but there's a good bit of it, as when Nicolas imagines making out with the teacher and when the hooded terrorists swarm over the school mowing everybody down with machine guns while Nicolas calmly eats food the other kids have left behind in panic. Even the scars the camera zooms in on so often and Nic's father's antics and horror stories about organ pirates are funny. It's macabre, but it's very funny.

And the twist at the end? What twist? The end was obvious almost from the beginning of the movie. This is a movie, not a psychology test or an inscrutable riddle or even much of a thriller. It's a very smart, very dark comedy about children and crazy parents. In trying to over-analyze it, people miss its fun. Lighten up and enjoy it.

A very humane and insightful piece of work, this film is really an examination of how a boy escapes the bizarre world that his father has created for him. The acting is excellent, the plotting is surprising and the whole film has a feel that is as crisp as the freshly fallen Alpine snows. Some parts of this film might seem to meander but don't let that put you off this movie - the last few minutes justify waiting through some of the character and plot development in the middle.

If anyone likes to discuss this film feel free to mail me, in English or in French.

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.

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.