Effroyables jardins (2003)
Directed by Jean Becker

Film Review

Jacques Villeret and André Dussollier, two of French cinema's most popular performers, are reunited for the umpteenth time in this bittersweet morality tale from director Jean Becker.  As in Becker's earlier film, Les Enfants du marais, Effroyables jardins is a simple yet moving film, whose naive cinematographic style subtly emphasises the stark poetry in its narrative.  Villeret and Dussollier, as ever, give great value, making this a particularly poignant film which most audiences will have little difficulty identifying with.

Although technically well made and overall aesthetically pleasing, the film is not without its faults. As with many of Becker's recent films, there is touch of complacency and familiarity which robs of the film of some of its conviction.  At some times early on in the film, Effroyables jardins feels more like a happy reunion for the cast and production crew of Les Enfants du marais than an a standalone comedy-drama.  Even in its moments of dramatic tension later on in the film it is quite hard for a spectator to take the situation seriously and sympathise with the characters.

Yet, in the second half, the film suddenly makes its mark.  We suddenly begin to feel for the characters, to notice in the film's direct, even clumsy style, a raw humanity which is becoming increasingly rare in modern cinema.  Whereas the first half of the film may leave you mildly amused but pretty lukewarm, the film's second half, with a tone far darker than anything seen in Jean Becker's work to date, will almost certainly leave a lasting impression.  Rather like the nauseating little boy in the film, you begin by slightly disliking its author, but, once the story has been told, you have to look on him with renewed admiration.

It can surely be no coincidence that the film has a strong resonance with Le Trou, the final film made by Jean Becker's father, Jacques (the same name as the main character in the film).  But is it also a coincidence that Becker decided to allow his own son, Louis, to produce the film?  Effroyables jardins may not be the most striking work in Jean Becker's short filmography but one suspects that it is, for the director, one which has great personal significance.

Film Synopsis

Lucien is a little boy who loves his father Jacques but he shrinks in embarrassment every time he sees him perform his clown act for the amusement of others.  It is not the way in which a respectable school teacher should spend his Sunday afternoons, or so thinks the over-critical Lucien.  Seeing the boy's contempt for his father, Jacques's best friend André takes it upon himself to explain to him the reason for his father's interest in clowns.  It all began during the Second World War, when France was occupied by the Nazis.  Then, Jacques and Lucien were both deeply in lust with the same woman, Louise.  To impress this marvelous example of womanhood, the two men lent their services to the French Resistance, by demolishing a signal box.  It wasn't long after this that they were captured by German soldiers and thrown unceremoniously into a mud pit with two other men.  The soldiers then gave them an ultimatum: all four will be shot unless one of them owns up to the demolition job.  Knowing that they had no chance of escape, the prisoners took what pleasure they could from the sight of a friendly German soldier imitating a clown...