Malabar Princess (2004)
Directed by Gilles Legrand

Film Review

Gilles Legrand's first film explores the subject of family bereavement in a most unusual way, through the eyes of a mischievous but good-natured young boy who is forced to shack up with his surly, solitary grandfather.  The idea has a lot of potential and there are a number of sequences in the film which are effectively realised.  However, for each good idea the script bears there are at least three stinkers which rob the film of most of its sense of truth and realism.  As the film progresses, Tom's antics become more and more implausible and it becomes abundantly clear that neither the scriptwriter nor the director have any idea how eight year old children behave or think in real life.  Jacques Villeret doesn't have much to make his character convincing, and, like most of the adults in the film, comes across as two-dimensional and rather unsympathetic.  The film's one saving grace is Yves Angelo's extraordinarily beautiful camerawork, which captures the sheer awesome majesty of one of the most beautiful areas of France.

Film Synopsis

After his wife's death, Pierre finds it increasingly difficult to bring up his rebellious eight-year old son Tom.  In the end he places the little boy in the care of his grandfather, Gaspard, a train driver who lives in the Mont Blanc region of France.   One of Gaspard's neighbours, Robert, is still in mourning, having lost his son in the same accident that robbed Tom of his mother.  Now Robert spends his idle hours gathering up the remarkably preserved remains of an Air India aeroplane which crashed into Mont Blanc fifty years ago, the Malabar Princess.  Still perturbed by his mother's absence, Tom finds it difficult adjusting to his new life and Robert's morbid obsession gives him some strange ideas.  It is with the support of his school teacher that the little boy will discover the truth and come through this first real challenge of his life...