Il mio amico giardiniere

Our usual group of 4 Dutch, Filipino, Chinese Malaysian, and French did enjoy so much this movie screened in Sydney these past few weeks. As said before simple but without simplicity. This was also my sentiment, I imagine my french background took my enjoyment even a little further. I can't say I never had much passion for gardening although I do appreciate nature in general. But I like animals and people behaviour; it is so often fascinating. This is what this story did for me, it brought fascinating union and mutual respect between two very different people, this in a rather natural way. I let myself go with the gentle flow of the tale and rode the few bumps here and there as life scatters them. I won't talk about the story line since I'm sure it's been read many time before these lines. There weren't a crowd either in the cinema, only one more couple and one lone other person. Yet the story took you from the start and you did not need a crowd around to help you along. It was almost like a personal experience that somehow made you feel as if you were part of this dialogue. I do much appreciate Daniel Auteuil whom I discovered for the first time with G de Pardieu in "Jean des Florettes" and "Manon des Sources" Much as happened since and for both of them but one seems to have been imunised from Hollywood and is better for it in my opinion.

Internationally known as "Conversations with My Gardener" this film deals with an artist that moves back to his small country side village of birth after living in the hectic and fast paced Paris for a good number of years. He is still married but divorce is on the way and is in desperate need of a change.

Once back on the country side he hires a gardener to work his garden while he works his art and as it turns out the gardener is a childhood friend of his that has been living in the village his whole life. When the two meet again they start reliving old memories and conversing about just about everything and inspiring each other in many ways, both learning something they had long since forgotten.

Beautiful imagery, nice mellow music, realism. But above all, a sparkling unity between the two main characters. With that the film has all the ingredients to be a great film. It falters on only a few spots and IMO the one place where it really fails is by taking a very often used cliché to add some events to the ending that work toward a quicker ending but toward nothing else.

8 out of 10 long talks on a midsummer night

I have just come from the FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL in Richmond, VA (2008), where I saw this film. I don't view a lot of American films, so I can't adequately compare, but I do know American film makers don't develop relationships between people the way French film makers do. While American films seem to give little short glimpses into people's lives, French film makers give us long conversations between actors and show us how one person can change the life of another.

In this film, the artist comes home to his roots. When he advertises for a gardener to work the potager at his old family home, an old school mate applies for the job. As they reconnect through the work, each contributes to the other's life. It's interesting to see how the artist's paintings changed as he was influenced by his friend.

The film deals with life, death, family, gardening, painting, sickness and other realities of life. The scenery is beautiful, the actors realistic, and the story believable.

When the director answered questions at the end of the screening, it was very interesting to hear the Americans trying to insert and look for symbolism in many of the scenes, but the director's replies indicated that symbolism was not intended, rather bare content.

I so enjoyed this film and wish I had a copy of it to entertain others with at my home. English subtitles are there, but if you understand French, you will get much more out of this movie. I found the English subtitles very British and not conveying the French spirit at times, but if you don't know the difference, it won't matter.

Jean Becker makes extremely typical french films, with lots of dialog, and masterful mise en scene. This film plays again with one of his favorite subjects, the wisdom of the uncultivated, working class simpletons, as opposed to the stiff way of life of the cultivated bourgeoisie. More or less. The story, a painter who goes back to the village of his childhood and befriends a retired railroad worker he hires as gardener ad happens to be an old childhood friend, serves well as an excuse for a series of enlightening dialogs and thoughts over class, life, struggle, love, etc. When it ends you have been entertained brilliantly for 90 minutes, and you are also left with something to think about.

His great performance is the axis of this moving short film about two friends encounter after decades , their jobs, family, memories, routine, different perspectives and different options but, both complementary.

A film who easy can be defined as good adaptation or bitter - sweer comedy , or demonstration of brilliant acting.

In fact, a beautiful invitation to viewer to discover himself, the near others, the beloved ones, the value of interests and virtues.

And a touching return to clear, precise, gentle, useful, honest simplicity, hiding painful details, offering naif, at first sight, perspective about life, defining, in proper terms, generosity and kindness.

In short, a film who must you see.