Un mauvais fils

If Claude Sautet is most known for his films about middle class, he signs there an excellent movie about the father-son relationship, both belonging to the working class. Patrick Dewaere is the "bad" son, returning home from the US and prison, with a drug addict and trafficker past. He's great, just right the whole movie. As always, I'm tempted to say. Yves Robert, the father, is a discovery for me as an actor and a good surprise. I knew him merely as director - he directed a handful of popular success. His play was at Dewaere's height and scenes with both of us together a real delight. The supporting roles, with Brigitte Fossey and Jacques Durilho, are also very good and give us some of the nicest scenes (the opera!).

The movie in itself stays a classic Sautet if I can say, even in this different settings, letting place to the characters, time to take its course. Showing the simple things of life. Kindliness for his characters. Caring for the little details. I don't know if this is because he is focused on this relationship and not on the description of a certain world, or if this is because he films a social background he knows less and with a generation that is not his, but it works really well, better than most of his middle-class movies.

If the misunderstanding between father and son is the motor of the movie, everyone knowing them, including the spectator, can only witness how similar they are but never at the same wavelength. Sautet adds nice secondary plots and manages a beautiful movie until a wonderful ending.

It is not a film to be explained, it is a film to be lived! It goes straight to the heart, simply to the essential. Exceptional in truth and authenticity with a great casting of exceptionnal actors. Wonderful!

This is one of the most beautiful movies I have seen in a long time. In fact, the credit of finding it goes to late Patrick Dewaere whose film "Going Places" made me such a big fan of his that I set out to watch all his great works. This is among his best. Indeed, French movies carry something that goes straight to the heart transcending all borders and boundaries. This saga of father son relationship is told with such relaxed pace without dramatizing the situations. Both father and the son are humans who love each other and care for each other, yet unable to come to terms with their own demons. It's strange why that great actor like Patrick Dewaere despite living a short life left behind a volume of exemplary performances has not been awarded his due place amongst the greatest stars of the world. I give this film 9 out of 10

This film has a beautiful density. Dramatic density, with each of the characters who are human beings, not clichés or stereotypes. Each one of them contributes to this story, simple, but rich, dense, where family, friends, lovers contribute to produce a beautiful drama. Patrick Dewaere returns from prison in the USA; he finds his father, Yves Robert, who could give the title of "a bad father" to the film, even if we understand him. The police help Patrick Dewaere to reintegrate. He then crosses the path of Brigitte Fossey (very good performance), also in rehabilitation following his drug addiction. He also meets Jacques Dufilho, who will help him to reintegrate.

The film could be called a beautiful story, with beautiful characters, poignant at times, but gripping, which accepts that everyone has good sides, or weaknesses, and are able to overcome them, or not. The script also mixes, without condescension or judgment, the universe of the father, a public works worker, and the employer for the reintegration, Jacques Dufilho, who is a bookseller and music lover. These worlds are articulated through the character of Patrick Dewaere.

In its kind, a perfect film, which does not leave indifferent, which knots the stomach of the spectator.

Claude Sautet's films are always rich in introspective thought, whether the subject is the fragility of existence (Les choses de la vie), the unconditional love of a man toward a woman that wants out of a relationship (César et Rosalie) or the everyday struggles to make it through ordinary existences (Vincent, François, Paul et les autres). In Un mauvais fils, Patrick Dewaere is paradoxely a good person who has made very bad decisions, but now wants to make amends and get a better life, all the while his father is still grieving the death of his wife.

Remarkably, while being usually casted in loser roles, Dewaere redeems himself from loser status to become a good son, a reliable worker and a strong support of his addicted girlfriend. It's too bad that we lost this prodigious actor too early, struggling himself with addiction and depression.