Un air de famille (1996)

Un air de famille is a French film comedy first released in 1996, directed by Cédric Klapisch.  The film stars Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Catherine Frot, Agnès Jaoui and Claire Maurier.  It has also been released under the title: Family Resemblances.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Whilst his brother Philippe is making a name for himself as a high-flying company executive, Henri has to content himself with running the saloon bar he inherited from his father.  His sister, Betty, is a tear-away feminist who, to her mother’s chagrin, still hasn’t settled down and started a family, despite being 30 – although she has been having a clandestine relationship with Henri’s barman, Denis.  The family come together one Friday evening to celebrate the birthday of Philippe’s wife, Yolande – just as Henri hears the news that his wife is leaving him.  The soirée soon turns into a nightmare as the siblings and their matriarchal mother start an interminable round of bickering, each seemingly incapable of responding to the others’ personal crises...

Beginning life as a popular stage play, Un air de famille proved to be an even greater success as a film, thanks largely to the quality of its script and some faultless acting.   It makes a distinct contrast with Cédric Klapisch’s previous films – particularly his largely improvised 1996 hit Chacun cherche son chat – in that it is a polished, meticulously designed work, although the hand of the auteur is still clearly visible.  The notion of family – or, more generally, a group of disparate people living together as a family unit – is a recurring theme in Klapisch’s work, and it is a subject the director continues to explore with a great deal of wit and insight.   Perhaps the main reason for the success of Un air de famille is that it shows a situation that most people can identify with.  It is a simple story – a family group get together, fall out with each other, reveal their true natures, switch allegiances, and then attempt to patch things up again – yet it is both compelling and rewarding.

The well-honed script is the work of Jean-Pierre Bacri and Agnès Jaoui, a writing/acting duo who have contributed to some of the most memorable French films in recent years - including Alain Resnais’ On connaît la chanson and Jaoui’s Le Goût des autres.  They are also talented actors in their own right, as this film demonstrates.  Their co-stars are equally worthy of praise, although it is the delightful Catherine Frot who gives most entertainment value as the seemingly tamed yet secretly rebellious housewife of a self-satisfied company man.  Each of the six principal actors in the film brings depth and colour to their characters, to the extent that by the end of the film we have the impression that we have known each of them for years.  Catherine Frot and Jean-Pierre Darroussin won Césars for their supporting roles in this film in 1997, whilst the film was awarded the César for the best script.

© James Travers 2003

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