Aime ton père

"A Loving Father" tells of a writer who is en route to pick up his Nobel prize when his trip is interrupted by an estranged son. This road trip flick focuses on the real life father/son Depardieu duo as it meanders through a spotty mire of family dysfunction issues. The sometimes engaging story is fraught with moments of implausibility, a seemingly concocted conclusion, and a trite moral which seems to be "Love your children because payback's a bitch". With good quality in all aspects except story, "A Loving Father" has been largely ignored by the critics and received only a few fringe awards with nominal plaudits from the public. Only for fans of the players or French cinema. (B-)

The high level of acting and the intensity of the performances raised the overall quality of the film. Though aspects of the film may have been somewhat unrealistic,it was certainly true to itself. I also believe that it just as easily relates to any father/son relationship (where there is an inability to get past ones self and their own feelings)as it does to a famous father/son relationship. As one of the other people who issued a comment "that the film was only a form of therapy for the director" I would say that almost any work of art that is deeply felt is in a sense a form of therapy for the artist. Hopefully the therapy helped. I certainly enjoyed it.

In the country of France, the writer Leo Shepherd (Gérard Depardieu) lives with his daughter Virginia (Sylvie Testud), who organizes his life. When the Swedish Academy awards Leo with the Nobel Prize for Literature, his son Paul (Guillaume Depardieu) unsuccessfully tries to contact him by phone, but Virginia does not allow Paul to talk to his father. Leo decides to go to Stockholm driving his motorcycle, and Paul follows him by car trying to speak with Leo. While trying to escape from Paul, Leo evolves in an accident on the road with another bike, a car and a truck and Paul kidnaps his slightly injured father. The police commit a mistake in the identification of one of the victims of the accident and announce the death of Leo. Meanwhile, Paul forces his father to listen to him, and along their conversation, a resentful relationship from both sides is disclosed.

"Aime Ton Père" is a deceptive movie about the relationship of a dysfunctional family that goes nowhere. The unpleasant and pointless story begins with a terrible development of characters, and it seems that Virginia is married with the black-haired guy (probably Arthur) and has an affair with the strong guy. The troubled relationship of Paul and Leo has accusations, resentments and pain but there is no final message. Further, there is no explanation why Leo has not written for three years. The conclusion of this empty story is absolutely disappointing. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Meu Pai, Meu Filho" ("My Father, My Son")

I must begin by emphasizing that the English title of this film is completely inappropriate. The correct translation of the French title is the imperative- Love Your Father.I think this fact is very key in the director's intention, as the story is really about that construct and not that of the erroneous The Loving Father.

I rarely feel so differently from other IMDb posters as I apparently do on this film. For me, Love Your Father was very realistic in its portrayal of all of the characters and their interactions.The messiness of it all, the many unanswered questions of motivation and action,history and future, were all part of a very realistic believable picture of a highly dysfunctional family.I suspected that the end would not clean up the mess,and it did not. However, I did think that the ferry and Nobel scenes showed that the brother and sister had finally really understood and accepted that they would never get what they had always wanted, and they could move forward as adults.As unexplained as it was, the very end gave me an interpretation of the future for the main character,cleanly echoed in the overlaid words of the Nobel recitation.So I did experience closure.

What I took away from the film is that great artists create and give great art to the world; they are driven to do this; it is not a rational or controllable decision for them. At the same time, they are often incapable of giving great things anywhere else in their lives.Almost invariably , they cannot give friends and family the love those people crave and deserve. So the 'loved ones' suffer immensely. Many other films and books have shown this irony; I thought Love Your Father did a terrific job of exposing it.

I am usually not so strict and judgmental in my comments however I must say that, besides being a rather dramatic example of a spoiled father-son relationship, I have found this movie to be long and extremely empty in its plot.

Its cold strokes remind me a lot of Chabrol's "Merci pour le Chocolat", with Isabelle Huppert and Jacques Dutronc. I must say that, although I am a Depardieu's fan in most cases, Aime Ton Pere has left me empty handed at the end of the tape. I can't really say much about Guillame Depardieu, given the movie's lack of plot and spinal cord and the fact that I haven't had a chance to analyze his other performances. I can already say though that he belongs to a different breed of actors than the one Gerard comes from. If you care to see a cold and cynical Depardieu senior in a true quality performance, 36 Quai des Orferves will keep you on your toes.