La Mère Christain (1998) - film review

In the early 1950s, Mother Christain runs a small bistro in the town of Lyons.  Alone and impoverished, she is scarred by her recent tragic experiences.  Her husband died during the war and her young daughter was found dead in a coal cellar a few years ago.   Refusing to accept that her daughter died in an accident, the fifty-year old widow carefully scrutinises her clientele to determine who killed her daughter...

In making this solemn drama, actress Myriam Boyer set out to evoke her own memories of post-war France and to tell a simple story of ordinary people, the kind of people she knew as a young girl.  With its realistic recreation of the period (including convincing exterior locations), the film manages to capture the mood of early 1950s France, although direct references to the war are, as might be expected, kept to a minimum.  What we see is the aftermath of the war – people rebuilding their lives and trying to put behind them the hardship of their wartime experiences.  Needless-to-say, the younger members of the community are more optimistic about the future than their older neighbours.

Although a moody and atmospheric work, the film has some difficulty engaging with its audience.  The quality of the acting is generally far from poor but few of the characters in the film appear believable or sympathetic.  The lack of content in the plot would not be a problem if there was something to compensate for that – such as particularly impressive cinematography or well-developed characterisation.  Unfortunately, the film is just too average in too many areas, technical and artistic, and it consequently lacks the impact which it ought to have but manifestly doesn’t.

© James Travers 2002

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