La bûche

Every year, American TV serves up so-called holiday fare, meaning made-for-TV movies about Brady Bunch-like families getting together for Christmas. Most are so forgettable that they get thrown out faster than used Christmas wrapping.

The French are in general much better at dealing on film with human relationships and the complexities of modern families and so I guess it should come as no surprise that they put together a far more engrossing story of a Christmas gathering.

Daniele Thompson's "La Buche" delves into the complex relationships in one family which is just days away form Christmas when the stepfather dies. The film opens humorously at his funeral, which for some is a time of mourning and for others,just a great, big inconvenience.

There are three intriguing daughters in this family and all of them lead complex lives, propelled along by the same thing that propels most French films -- love. The oldest daughter, played by Sabine Azema, is a 42-year old singer in a Russian cabaret who has been having an affair for 12 years with a married man. The middle sister, Emmanuelle Beart, is the woman who appears to have everything: beauty, wealth, husband, kids and the kind of controlling personality that keeps them all dancing to her tune. The youngest sister, Charlotte Gainsberg, is a vaguely rebellious young, motorcycle riding loner who has no man of her own, but would like one. Then there's their real father, Claude Riche, a guy who apparently during his active years bedded more women than Magic Johnson.

American holiday movies usually include some family members in crisis and a lot of family members sharing recriminations about past transgressions. "La Buche" serves up its share of both, but with a French twist. Everyone in this family has their share of sins to confess and forgiveness to seek and in some cases, even monumental decisions to face. But they all seem to do it not only with style and grace, but with a lot of humor thrown in for good measure. If this holiday film has a message, it seems to be that you can make the best of any situation if you try hard enough.

The acting and directing here are first rate and the characters, especially the three daughters, are so intriguing you almost don't want the film to end. You want to find out how all three daughters handle the changes coming to their lives.

That's probably the best thing you can say about any film and hats off to director Thompson for making it so with "La Buche."

Danielle Thompson has written a lot for the cinema. Some of her best efforts have been "La Reine Margot", "Le cerveau", and "Cousin, cousine", among others. Ms. Thompson, whose first directorial job this is, wanted, perhaps, to give her public a good dramatic comedy when she undertook this project. The results are somewhat pleasing.

The story centers about three sisters that are as different from one another as they are from their mother. Louba, Sonia and Milla have gone to have their own lives, but when they are reunited on December 20th, just before Christmas, they show they care for one another in more ways than we realize.

Sabina Azema, Emmanuelle Beart and Charlotte Gainsbourg play the three siblings with style. The lovely Francoise Fabian is seen as their mother. Also in the cast, Claude Rich and the director's son, Christopher Thompson.

Ms. Thompson gives us a different take on Christmas, something we don't often see on the screen.

Only a French director would begin a Christmas movie with a funeral.

This film, with its American Christmas song sound-track, is difficult to describe. It requires intense concentration to remember who is married to whom, who is related to whom, who has had an affair with whom, etc. (In fact, I am glad my wife and I saw this movie on VHS--we could stop it every so often and say, "Now which husband/daughter/lover/ wife is that?")

The good news is that there is some outstanding acting by skilled French actors--Sabine Azéma, Emmanuelle Béart, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Claude Rich, and especially Françoise Fabian.

The biggest problem I had with this film--other than sorting out the various pairings-- was that not one couple had a simple, loving, faithful relationship. Surely--even in France--a family would contain two people who love each other, are married, and do not cheat.

If you accept adultery as a part of everyone's life, this movie makes sense. If you don't accept this, the plot grows tedious.

This film is worth seeing for the acting, but not worth a special effort or special trip.

P.S. Surprisingly, the director has chosen to play down the appearance of Emmanuelle Béart. In most films, she is obviously incredibly beautiful. In this ensemble film, Béart is portrayed as attractive, but no more so than the other actors. Whether this concept is a good one or a bad one will depend on your point of view.

I saw this film and The Royal Tenenbaums in the course of the same week. The themes were very similar (a coincidence?), but La Buche was more interesting, more believable and more enjoyable. I cared about the characters. Gene Hackman's brood were cardboard cutouts. And La Buche didn't need the Hollywood formulaic 500 milliseconds of exposed breast to earn its adult status.

Three sisters of Russian parentage; one married but not too happily, one having an affair with a married man who'll never leave his wife and one without a man at all and unhappy; all three longing for something ... I like to think that Daniele Thompson wrote this charmer with her tongue in her cheekhov but who knows. What I do know is that together with son Christopher Thompson, who also has a featured role, she has hit one out of the park in her first at bat. We shouldn't be too surprised, she wrote her first screenplay at the age of 24 and Le Grande Vadrouille, directed by her father and ex-actor Gerard Oury was one of the biggest hits in France and is still aired regularly. Along the way she has written such comedies as La Folie de grandeurs, Le Cerveau, Les Adventures de Rabbi Jacob plus the more mainstream Cousin, Cousine, La Boum, Les Marmottes, La Reine Margot, Belle Maman, Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train (Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train) and Decalage Horaire, solid credits whichever way you slice it. La Buche begins on December 20, with a funeral. The widow, Yvette (Francoise Fabian) is joined initially by two of her daughters, Louba (Sabine Azema) the eldest and Sonia (Emmanuelle Beart), the middle one. With the ceremony all but over the youngest, Milla (Charlotte Gainsbourg) arrives wearing a miniskirt, as Sonia bitches to Louba later. The deceased is, in fact, the stepfather of the three girls, their parents having been divorced some 25 years previously. The respective characters are limmned economically and expertly. Sonia, the successful one who buys groceries wholesale to save FF300, Louba the hopeless romantic who sings Russian songs in a Russian restaurant and has been involved with a married man, Gilbert (Jean-Pierre Larroussin) for 12 years and Milla, the youngest and most rebellious who is also successful but chooses to live, according to Sonia, in a rat hole. The film chronicles the family during the build-up to Christmas and naturally everyone has their own problems; Louba, at 42, has become pregnant but feels unable to tell her lover - Gilbert is an up-market estate agent and their trysts take place in well-appointed apartments in between sales and Thompson extracts a little gently mileage out of Azema bringing her own bed linen and packing it the next morning - Sonia's marriage is on the rocks, Milla is so lonely she canvasses casual work colleagues as to their availability for Christmas whilst Stanislaus, the girl's natural father, who during his marriage was a serial adulterer, remains bitter even after 25 years and subjects Louba, who lives with him, to an ongoing barrage of bile. Even the tenant, Joseph (Christopher Thompson), who has become an unofficial carer for Stanislaus, has problems in the shape of ex-wife Annabelle (Isabelle Carre) who has custody except at Christmas when she is reluctant to surrender it. Thompson weaves these separate strands expertly into a huge, warm blanket and contrives to deal with most if not all of the problems. A stunning debut with acting honors divided equally with all hands well worth five stars. 8/10