L’Avion (2005) - film review

Christmas evening, eight-year-old Charly anxiously awaits the return of his father, Pierre, to the family home.  Pierre, an aerospace engineer, is often away working on secret military projects, but he has promised his son a bike for Christmas.  Charly cannot hide his disappointment when, instead of the bike he has been expecting, he receives a model aeroplane.  Pierre explains that he made it himself, that a plane is a much better present than a bike, but Charly is unimpressed.  A few days later, Charly returns home from school to find his mother in tears.  His father has just died in an accident.  That evening, Charly’s toy plane begins to take on a life of its own.  To the boy’s amazement, the plane can move of its own accord – as if it were alive...

With a body of five well-regarded films under his belt, director Cédric Kahn has established himself as one of France’s most promising young filmmakers.  The diversity of his films – ranging from the erotic drama L’Ennui (1998) to the visceral thriller Roberto Succo (2001) – has also earned him a reputation as someone who is very hard to pin down.  L’Avion, his latest film, continues this pattern of unpredictability and it could hardly be more different from anything that Kahn has made previously.

Inspired by Magda and Lapière’s popular comic book Charly, L’Avion is unashamedly a film for children, although grown-ups may succumb to its simplistic charms and enjoy it just as much.  The tough adult realism that is present in Kahn’s previous films is all but absent from this film, which is perhaps best described as a cinematic fairytale.  Viewed from an adult perspective, the film fails completely.  The plot contrivances are too many and too obvious.  The characters are implausible (despite some very creditable performances) and the story too fanciful to be taken seriously (particularly in the second half of the film).  However, from a child’s point of view, it does have a distinct appeal and it is no more objectionable than any traditional fairy tale. 

Anyone who attempts to view L’Avion as a straight drama is both wasting his time and completely misunderstanding the point of the film.  In adult terms, this is a film which is intended to evoke something of the magic and confusion of childhood, a phase in our lives when reality and fantasy really do merge seemlessly together and anything appears to be possible.  Of course a child of eight can believe that an inanimate piece of matter in the shape of an aeroplane can fly by itself.  Of course he can believe that this plane will take him to happier places where he will have amazing adventures.  Why do we tell children stories about tooth fairies and Father Christmas if we expect them only to believe what we know to be real?  L’Avion reminds us what it was like to see the world through a child’s eyes and brings a new kind of realism to cinema – the strange and sadly ephemeral realism of childhood.

© James Travers 2008

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