Film Review
The meaning of life, the universe and everything... This seems to
be the overarching theme to the otherwise pretty hard to categorise
oeuvre of French film director Jean Becker (the son of the great
cineaste Jacques Becker, whose output was even more eclectic).
Becker's early films are an odd mix of popular comedies (
Échappement libre,
Tendre
voyou) and thrillers (
Un nommé La Rocca,
L'Été
meurtrier). It was only after his 1999 hit
Les
Enfants du marais that a pattern begins to emerge, as the
director acquired an increasing affinity with individuals struggling to
find a meaning for their existence. This is very much the theme
of Jean Becker's latest film, an understated little drama about a
disillusioned artist who, locked in a downward spiral of depression,
experiences a spiritual rebirth when his path crosses that of a stray
teenage girl who is suffering a similar crisis of identity.
Bienvenue parmi nous (a.k.a.
Welcome Aboard) is based on a novel
of the same title by the popular French author Éric Holder,
first published in 1998. This is not the first of Holder's novels
to be adapted for the cinema - it is preceded by
Mademoiselle Chambon (2009)
and
L'Homme de chevet (2009),
directed respectively by Stéphane Brizé and Alain
Monne. On the face of it, there seems to be a high degree of
overlap between
Bienvenue parmi nous
and some of Becker's previous films. As in
Dialogue avec mon jardinier
(2007), the central character (Taillandier) is an artist who is
impelled to start a new life to regain his creative inspiration and
zest for living. Taillandier also resembles the main character in
Deux jours à tuer (2008),
who performs a similar disappearing act, walking away from his job and
his family for no apparent reason. The mutually beneficial
relationship that develops between Taillandier and the teenager Marylou
has much in common with that featured in
Élisa (1995), and is
handled with as much tenderness and irony. Whilst
Bienvenue parmi nous navigates some
very familiar waters, it somehow feels different to most of Becker's
recent films. It is a more introspective, more melancholic piece,
and whilst it is unlikely to win many awards for originality (critical
reaction to the film has so far been pretty damning), it has no
difficulty holding our attention - although most of the credit for this
should go not to Becker, but to his two lead actors.
If the film excels anywhere it is in the central performance from
Patrick Chesnais, whose authentic portrayal of a man rediscovering the
joys of living after a brief flirtation with suicide is simply
spellbinding. It is not hard to see why Chesnais is the darling
of auteur filmmakers - he combines an unstarry, everyman ordinariness
with a rare ability to project his characters' deeper feelings straight
into the hearts of his audience, apparently without any physical
effort. Although he is now in his mid-60s, Chesnais still has
that unerring knack of grabbing our attention and compelling us to
empathise with him, in whatever role he appears.
Bienvenue parmi nous is by no means
an unqualified masterpiece, but the heartrending performance that
Chesnais gives in it is unquestionably one of his best, one of
exceptional truth and intensity.
Jeanne Lambert may not have Patrick Chesnais's experience but she
convinces us she is a comparable talent in this, her debut feature,
playing the troubled adolescent to Chesnais's troubled
sexagenarian. Like her older co-star, Lambert reveals far more in
her performance than is evident on the surface, which is perhaps
surprising when you consider that her previous acting experience is in
theatre. The chemistry between the two lead actors is spot on,
and one of the most magical aspects of the film is the ease with which their
characters manage to bridge the generational gap and form a meaningful
emotional bond. It's a pity that all of the secondary characters
are far less well-developed and less convincingly played, despite the
casting of such illustrious names as Miou-Miou and Jacques Weber.
We can only groan as the other actors drag themselves laboriously
through a minefield of well-worn clichés, but Chesnais and
Lambert are in a class of their own and have no difficulty rendering
their characters convincing and likeable, salvaging the film as they do
so.
The first part of the film is undoubtedly where it is strongest, having
a focus and intensity that are rapidly dissipated in the film's second
half. Here, the spotlight is on Patrick Chesnais, harrowingly
convincing as a man who has lost his reason for living and sees nothing
but emptiness around him. For a director who has a reputation for
looking on the bright side of life, Chesnais's early scenes in the film
have an astonishingly dark hue and, for a while, it looks as if Jean
Becker is going to take us down a whole new avenue.
Unfortunately, first impressions can be very deceptive, and after a
tentative walk on the wild side, Becker yanks us back onto safer, more
familiar ground, throwing up a golden opportunity to try something
different as he does so. Before we know it, the film has started
to resemble an American soap-style road movie from the 1990s, and
surprises from this point on are desperately few and far between.
Fortunately, whilst Becker struggles and fails to breathe new life into
his hackneyed plot, he can rely on his two lead actors to bail him
out. Overall,
Bienvenue parmi
nous is disappointingly tame and predictable, but we can easily
forgive this on account of its charm and the impressive duo formed by
Patrick Chesnais, a great actor at the height of his powers, and Jeanne
Lambert, a debutante French film star in the making.
© James Travers 2012
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Next Jean Becker film:
Bon rétablissement! (2014)