Le Premier jour du reste de ta vie (2008) - film review

Marie-Jeanne and Robert Duval are a happily married couple who have three children, Albert, Raphaël and Fleur.  Between 1988 and 2000, as the children grow up and leave home, the five members of this ordinary French family will each live a day that will be a turning point in his or her life.

Director Rémi Bezançon’s second film after his moderately successful debut feature, Ma vie en l’air (2005), is this sprawling family drama which proved to be a hit in 2008.  The film was the wild card at the 2009 Césars, garnering nominations in nine categories and winning three awards, for Best Editing, Most Promising Actor (Marc-André Grondin) and Most Promising Actress (Déborah François).  The film boasts some exceptional performances from a likeable ensemble cast and a soundtrack that includes some great music from Etienne Daho, David Bowie and Divine Comedy.  

Whilst it does at times feel a little uneven and prone to cliché, Le Premier jour du reste de ta vie is, overall, an absolute delight - one moment hilariously funny, the next moment intensely poignant, but always with something meaningful to say about family relationships.  You can just imagine the more polished Hollywood equivalent, dripping in sickly sweet sentimentality and without an ounce of sincerity.  Rémi Bezançon’s portrayal of family life is anything but insincere.  The characters are truthfully drawn and the situations played for real, offering a taste of family life in all its rich diversity that is warm-hearted yet scrupulously frank.

Perhaps the only thing that doesn’t quite work with this film is Bezançon’s attempt to impose an episodic structure on it by dividing it into five segments, which separately recount an apparently crucial event in the life of each of the five main characters.  The idea initially appears to have some mileage but breaks down towards the end.  The fact the film has to resort to using flashbacks suggests that Bezançon realised the limitations of this narrative straitjacket.  Despite this, the film holds together remarkably well, thanks to Bezançon’s intelligent script and some faultless performances.  Whilst most films these days portray families in an extremely negative or cariactured way, it is gratifying to come across one which offers a convincing depiction of family life, presenting it as something that should be celebrated and cherished, not ridiculed.

© James Travers 2010

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