Propriedade Privada

This movie tells the story of a family collapsing on its own equilibrium. The director chooses a series of very essential and meaningful scenes and we seldom see close ups. The camera is almost always fixed in one point, and this gives the viewer the sensation of being a hidden witness to the events. Real life brothers Jérémie and Yannick Renier play 2 twin brothers that couldn't be more different. One is instinctive, passionate, ill-tempered and self-confident, while the other is more sensitive, shy and withdrawn. Their divorced mother is played by a brilliant Isabelle Huppert, and is experiencing a second wind in her life and believes that her sons are pinning her down. When she decides to sell their house to start a new life with her lover, tension rises and the family bursts apart. Lafosse has proved to have talent as a director. I give it a 6/10.

While "Private property" can be loosely brought under the umbrella of "dysfunctional family drama" (a recent good one, in the English language, is "The squid and the whale") – divorced single mother, emotionally immature just-turned-adult sons, the family's lacking in general purpose and direction – it probes the psychology of the protagonist in a way more subtle than you would find in Hollywood.

The plot and events are not important here, just anchors for character development. While the twin sons are just turning adult, the mother, Pascale, who has been working as an employee wants to start her own business elsewhere, with a modest B&B operation. The pre-requisite for her dream is selling their house, which meets immediately with objections from the sons, Tierry and Francois. The divorced father lives within driving distance, with his own family now, but is still on good terms with the sons, something the mother loathes. The mother is having her second romance, seeing a neighbour regularly. Tierry has a girlfriend, not a serious relationship. There you have all the characters. Nothing much happens. As I said, the events serve only to anchor the depiction of relationships between the various people. At the end, something does happen, an accident which is left open-ended.

The movie starts in a mood that you can almost call jovial, as the sons tease Pascale for her new dress. We see a lot of the family in a mundane daily activity – eating at the kitchen table. It's only upon reflection that it occurs to me that these scenes perhaps underscore the dependence of the sons on their mother, as do the scenes that repeatedly remind us that they often need a ride from the mother as they live in a remote location and their motorcycle is not a reliable piece of machinery. The message finally sinks in that although Tierry and Francois have just attained adulthood, they are still children in more ways than one. Sitting in front of the TV seems to be their major activity, particularly after Pascale has left the house to stay temporarily with a girl friend after a quarrel with Tierry. The pair become very much like the little kid in "Home alone" (but less resourceful).

The distinction between the tow sons also unfolds gradually, but very clearly. Tierry is the rebellious one with an explosive temper while Francois is introvert, shy and more caring for his mother. There is surprisingly little sibling rivalry, despite their regular fight for the motorbike and adolescence jealousy from Tierry when his girlfriend receives a little attention from Francois. The more significant thing, however, is that despite the obvious fact that Francois is Pascale's favourite, Tierry does not seem to be jealous, probably because he does not care enough about his mother to be so disposed.

The file is shot in a simple, straight forward style, using mostly a static camera, with average-length scenes – a day-to-day story told in a simple manner, the way it should be. Consistent with this, and apt, is the decision of not having any background music, until the ending 3 minutes (which in itself is quite interesting because the powerful, overwhelming and disturbing strings would be consider by some as an unnecessary distraction but by others as a brilliant coda to the emotion-charged conclusion).

Playing Tierry is Jeremie Renier who had a similar (but less explosive) role in last year's Cannes winner "L'enfant", demonstrating that he is a top choice for playing a young man facing a huge mental obstacle, however caused, in attaining maturity. Yannick Renier, his real brother, turns in an appropriately subdued, gentle persona. But it is of course Isabelle Huppert, as one poster points out, that is the main attraction for most viewers buying a ticket, including this one. All that I can say is no matter what role she has been given, Huppert always brings to it something that makes it more memorable.

Isabelle Huppert, who has A-list directors standing in line to work with her is celebrated for her willingness to help new writer-directors by lending her name to attract finance and her presence on set to attract audiences. This can, of course, prove embarrassing - Josie Balasko's first directorial effort Sac de Noeuds didn't exactly set the screen alight but Huppert was right to see the promise which has since been kept over and over - but on the other hand it can result in something as delightful as Aleandra Leclerc's Les Soeurs fachees (Huppert has a new film with Leclerc, Les Mediaturs, in post-production even as we speak). She got it right this time, too, with Joachim Lafosse who probably wouldn't have got this one off the ground without Huppert. Real-life brothers Jeremie and Yannick Renier play Huppert's twin sons who live with her in what was the family home til Huppert divorced their father Patrick Descamps, who has remarried and lives within driving distance with his new wife and child. The French title Nue Propriete, is more specific, a French legal term in which a family member, usually an ex-spouse, is allowed to live in a house but has no legal right to ownership so that they cannot, for example, sell it or take in lodgers. This, in fact is the position in which Huppert finds herself and as it happens she does want to sell, move away with a neighbour/lover and open a B&B. This brings us to the twins, neither of whom appears to have any friends although one has a girl he uses as a sex-object. Long before we, the audience, enter the scene, the boys have become dominant, especially Jeremie Renier who thinks nothing of interrogating his mother daily, verbally abusing her and going through her bag. It goes without saying that her attempt to introduce her lover to the twins is a disaster. This is a cloistered, unhealthy family with Huppert thinking nothing of taking a shower openly whilst one son cleans his teeth two or three feet away; a great deal of screen time is given over to meals, traditionally a time when families come together in harmony but not, of course, here. As usual Huppert gives a Master-Class in Screen acting but there isn't really a bad performance throughout. It's not exactly Feelgood but it is a fine film and worth anyone's time.

As a parent of three children, ages 16 to 20, I can say unequivocally that this wonderfully acted and deftly written and directed little film captures more about the relationships between modern youth and their baby-boomer parents than a dozen sociological tracts or studies could ever hope to achieve. On one level, the two sons are simply over-indulged, self-pitying and foul-mouthed brats, but that is far from the whole story. They are victims too, of a society in which self-fulfillment trumps parental duty and parents think that they can buy the loyalty and affection of their children with money and material goods. Not that this family is especially prosperous - in fact, they live an essentially hand to mouth existence, but still enjoy most of the fruits of modern Western culture - motorbikes, video games, etc. Isabelle Huppert is terrific as the long-suffering mother who is unable to confront her own children for fear of alienating them completely, so much so that she has to recruit a surrogate in an attempt to break through to them. Although the film is set in France the chords it strikes are universal. It makes you angry, frustrated and occasionally just overwhelmed - much like being parent of teenage boys.

The French film, "Private Property," sets up a fierce battle of wills between a divorced mother and the two ne'er-do-well sons (fraternal twins) who still live with her. Pascale wants to sell the house and open up a bed-and-breakfast with her new boyfriend, but the young men, fearing the loss of the property that they believe should rightly go to them, attempt to block any efforts in that direction.

With intelligent direction by Joachim Lafosse and incisive writing by Lafosse and Francois Pirot, this low-keyed family drama explores the complexities inherent in filial, sibling and marital relationships. The confrontation scenes, many of which take place during meal times (come to think of it, I don't believe I've seen this much eating in a film since "Babette's Feast"), are sharply drawn and effectively staged. The acting is excellent across the board, particularly that of Isabelle Huppert, as the middle-aged woman determined to finally start living for herself, and Jeremy Renier, as the more belligerent and self-centered of her two sons. Yannick Renier, Jeremy's brother in real life, is also very good as the more passive of the twins.

Some viewers may feel let down and frustrated by the inconclusive ending, but I enjoyed the ambiguity of it. We have been made privy to just one brief episode in the lives of these people - then it's time for us to move on.