Film Review
Anne Le Ny's eagerly awaited follow up to her well-received debut
feature
Ceux qui restent (2007) is
another compelling drama dealing with fraught human relationships in a
sensitive and mature way. At a superficial level,
Les Invités de mon père
appears to be about the conflict between humanitarian ideals and the
constraints of bourgeois conformity. Just how far can one go in
supporting noble causes before one's own notions of decorum and desire
for personal comfort become threatened? The film turns out to be
much more subtle and ambiguous than this, the crux of the story being the problematic
child-parent relationship in adulthood, specifically the obligations
that parents and children have towards one another late in life.
Do parents have the right to disinherit their children, even if they
have no need of the wealth they will inherit? And are children
obliged to accept the whims of their parents, no matter how eccentric
and destructive these may be? The film offers no easy answers but
raises many interesting questions, of the kind which most of us will
have to deal with at some time in our lives.
As with her first film, Anne Le Ny assembles a superlative cast who
more than do justice to her nuanced and insightful screenplay.
Fabrice Luchini and Karin Viard are superb as the bourgeois siblings
who, speared on the horns of a moral dilemma, must struggle
with their consciences and class prejudices whilst their father (an
excellent Michel Aumont) makes a bonfire of long cherished middleclass
taboos. Luchini is particularly brilliant in this film, less
mannered and theatrical than in many of his previous screen portrayals,
far more down to earth and convincing. He handles the film's wry
comedy as effortlessly as its darker, more dramatic moments, and he
makes an effective contrast with the slightly hysterical Viard, who is
well-chosen to deliver some badly needed comic relief. Although
their characters are far less well developed, Valérie Benguigui
and Veronica Novak both succeed in giving them substance, without
distracting from the main thrust of the story, which is the
deteriorating relationship between the father Lucien and his two children.
Les Invités de mon père broaches some
weighty and timely issues (the treatment of illegal immigrants
continues to be one of the hottest topics in France), but Anne Le Ny
avoids getting bogged down in political posturing and instead focuses
on the human implications of becoming so involved in humanitarian
causes that family relationships come under threat. Her film is
not particularly profound but it is engaging and extremely well-acted,
and also refreshingly honest in admitting that, in real life, there are
no easy solutions to complex moral dilemmas. As any French chef
or (immigration minister) will tell you,
on ne fait pas d'omelette sans casser des oeufs.
© James Travers 2012
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Lucien Paumelle has dedicated his life to humanitarian
causes. Now in his eighties and retired, he devotes his
energies to helping illegal immigrants. His two grown-up
children, Arnaud and Babette, are appalled when they discover that he
intends to go through with a marriage of convenience, so that a
Moldavian woman, Tatiana, can avoid be deported back to her home
country with her young daughter. Arnaud and Babette take an
instant dislike to Tatiana and soon have good reason to think that she
is manipulating their father for her own benefit. How are they to
react when Lucien tells them he intends to disinherit them and leave
his entire estate to Tatiana?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.