La classe de neige

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.

There are both problem children and problem parents. In this TV movie Nicolas has an over-protective father who will not allow his son to ride on the school bus on their holiday excursion to the mountains. He explains that there are criminals around who kidnap children from side-walks, playgrounds etc. Nicolas being a sensitive child elaborates on his father's fears and has regular bouts of day-dreaming as well as horrific nightmares. This makes interesting entertainment. I like the intercutting of dreams and reality. The horror mounts from scene to scene in a confusing mixture. Nicolas confides to his friend Hodkann that organised criminals pounce on children and cut out their kidneys and livers in mobile hospitals. Sad-faced Nicolas is convincing as the imaginative child. He tells Hodkann that he is an informer and that he helps his father in seeking out these traffickers in human organs. Nicolas also reads horror stories at bed-time. "The Monkey's Paw" scene is a brilliant piece of technical manipulation. Nicolas asks his tutor if it is possible to make things happen just by thinking hard enough about them. This theme is pursued in many scenes where Nicolas manipulates scenes on the television screen e.g. he imagines his father in an automobile accident. I have the feeling that Nicolas is a really mixed up kid and his psychological problems result in worrying bed-wettings. This is alluded to constantly. Clement van der Bergh with his sad and unsmiling face is admirable as young Nicolas, and in contrast we have his happy-go-lucky friend Hodkann in constant awe of Nicolas's imaginative stories. The film centres about their friendship and their adventures. Their warm relationship is convincing. An early scene (actually a nightmare) shows an assassination of virtually everyone by terrorists who attack the mountain lodge. Yes, it's an exciting film that keeps you awake to the end.

Not another coming of age film! It is but with the sinister twist of Claude Miller in control of poor boy Nicholas and his hang-ups. This is a fascinating entry into the mind of a young boy who is going through the motions of adjusting to life while on a school camp. There are certain elements surrounding him that make it that little bit complicated for our hero. And if you can relate to it, (like I did and now I'm a bit worried about it), then you will truly understand the boy's plight.

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.

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. (**)