I can't tell you when French people lost their proverbial "joie de vivre" but the election of François Hollande sure didn't bring it back. And in a social fifty-shades-of-gray context, a small, predictable, and shamelessly formulaic film like "The Belier Family" could bring its rainbow of optimism and lift their spirits high enough to stop looking at their poo-shoes. The film is a crossover of "Intouchables" and "The Chorus", a hymn for acceptance and triumph of the human spirit with handicap and music as a backdrop.
Now, if I wanted to rate Eric Lartigau's noble intentions, out of ten I would give a 10, for the commercial motives, it would be 11. The magic of the film operated precisely because Lartigau knew the basic ingredients of the recipe: a cast made of popular names, the recent winner of "The Voice" (French TV version) in a role between Cinderella and the Ugly Duckling. The rest is a series of tropes making once again a mockery of adolescence. In fact, the film is less about teenagers than the idea Victoria Bedos who wrote the original story has on teenagers.
Name a cliché, it's there: they hate their parents, girls fall in love with the mysterious guy who doesn't talk much. The heroine Paula Bélier (Louane) is a misfit, her best friend Mathilde (Roxane Duran) seems like a lovable loser who accepts kissing a boy in the toilet (why not outside?) or letting Paula's brother (Luca Gelberg) include breast-palpating in language sign learning. Of course, you can't make a teenage story without every major step of the coming-of-age: and so in three or four months, Paula hits puberty, falls in love and knows what to do with her life, quite the late bloomer!
At that point, deafness is not a plot point but a moral argument: how dare you dislike a film that finally allow hard-hearing people to shine? Well, I'm not sure the script of Lartigau treats deafness with the sole respect it actually demands and instead tries to exploits it like the near-sigthedness of Mr. Magoo. Speaking of which, that's what the film lacked: a proper vision.
For instance, Paula is the bridge of communication between her parents -deaf farm owners- and the rest of the community. They live in a small village and yet some customers who come buy their cheese don't know they're deaf. Let's assume they live remotely but when Karin Viard who plays the dizzy mother keeps smiling after a customer's question, what does she expect the smile would do anyway? Wouldn't it be simpler if she just 'signed' that she couldn't speak? Worse, Paula doesn't tell the confused woman that her mother is deaf but makes a joke about it, we get it she is blasé and witty. It just doesn't feel real.
Lartigau doesn't care for realism anyway, nor simplicity but for effects and sometimes sacrifices the fluidity of the narrative for the sake of a joke. A visit to the gynecologist with a little teenager translating her parents' "troubles" is awkward but funny, but there's never a callback to that scene.
Let's forgive it because it was fun. One is unforgivable though: the whole subplot involving the father (François Damiens) running for mayor. The film makes such an effort to show the current mayor Lapidus (Stephan Wojtowicz) as a shady and corrupt politician, we want him to be beaten. But in fact, it's only a plot necessity to force Paula to miss a training appointment for an audition. Notice that once she misses the lesson, we don't hear anymore from the election.
There's also a subplot involving a love story with the other chorus soloist (Ilian Bergala) that of course must be spiced up with a conflict: and what do writers choose for that? Paula hitting puberty at the wrong time and her mother proudly harboring the "crime weapon". Which family would do such a humiliating thing? That was a major turn-off.
Ma and Pa Bélier behave in a way that oscillates between dim-wittedness and abuse, weakening the conflict with their daughter: they can't let her go because they need her and their deafness "allows" them to ignore her talent. In fact, had the plot trimmed all the peripheral elements and stuck to the parental conflict and the relationship with Mr. Thomasson (Eric Elsonimo), it could have worked better. But Lartigau wanted to milk the dumb teenage film formula to the extreme and make most of Paula's troubles resulting from one simple thing: she doesn't tell Thomasson that her parents are deaf.
Still, in 2014, the film was one of the most successful of the year, a popular success. Why? Maybe the casting, Viard playing it goofy, Damiens playing it straight, or maybe it's true there's something about Sardou's music. I concede there's a touching climactic scene that ties the plot together and offers the one great emotional moment in the film: the song "I Fly", the swan song of a boy about to commit suicide, translated -in the film- into the desire to leave the family nest. When Paula finishes, there's an ovation and the loudly whispered "Bravo" from Viard touched me so deeply I wish the film had a few moments like this, genuine, spontaneous and real.
As for Louane, as much as I enjoy her as a singer and as I feel sorry for her real-life story, she needed more coaching, something in the intonations of her voice felt like just 'reading' or trying to match the 'said' with the 'signed' and it could have been easily improved.
At the end this is a charming little film at best but if it wasn't for the American remake "CODA" being the Best Picture winner, I would have waited a little more. The film is good but doesn't fly very high, at least Paule does at the end, which is satisfying enough. I guess...
Now, if I wanted to rate Eric Lartigau's noble intentions, out of ten I would give a 10, for the commercial motives, it would be 11. The magic of the film operated precisely because Lartigau knew the basic ingredients of the recipe: a cast made of popular names, the recent winner of "The Voice" (French TV version) in a role between Cinderella and the Ugly Duckling. The rest is a series of tropes making once again a mockery of adolescence. In fact, the film is less about teenagers than the idea Victoria Bedos who wrote the original story has on teenagers.
Name a cliché, it's there: they hate their parents, girls fall in love with the mysterious guy who doesn't talk much. The heroine Paula Bélier (Louane) is a misfit, her best friend Mathilde (Roxane Duran) seems like a lovable loser who accepts kissing a boy in the toilet (why not outside?) or letting Paula's brother (Luca Gelberg) include breast-palpating in language sign learning. Of course, you can't make a teenage story without every major step of the coming-of-age: and so in three or four months, Paula hits puberty, falls in love and knows what to do with her life, quite the late bloomer!
At that point, deafness is not a plot point but a moral argument: how dare you dislike a film that finally allow hard-hearing people to shine? Well, I'm not sure the script of Lartigau treats deafness with the sole respect it actually demands and instead tries to exploits it like the near-sigthedness of Mr. Magoo. Speaking of which, that's what the film lacked: a proper vision.
For instance, Paula is the bridge of communication between her parents -deaf farm owners- and the rest of the community. They live in a small village and yet some customers who come buy their cheese don't know they're deaf. Let's assume they live remotely but when Karin Viard who plays the dizzy mother keeps smiling after a customer's question, what does she expect the smile would do anyway? Wouldn't it be simpler if she just 'signed' that she couldn't speak? Worse, Paula doesn't tell the confused woman that her mother is deaf but makes a joke about it, we get it she is blasé and witty. It just doesn't feel real.
Lartigau doesn't care for realism anyway, nor simplicity but for effects and sometimes sacrifices the fluidity of the narrative for the sake of a joke. A visit to the gynecologist with a little teenager translating her parents' "troubles" is awkward but funny, but there's never a callback to that scene.
Let's forgive it because it was fun. One is unforgivable though: the whole subplot involving the father (François Damiens) running for mayor. The film makes such an effort to show the current mayor Lapidus (Stephan Wojtowicz) as a shady and corrupt politician, we want him to be beaten. But in fact, it's only a plot necessity to force Paula to miss a training appointment for an audition. Notice that once she misses the lesson, we don't hear anymore from the election.
There's also a subplot involving a love story with the other chorus soloist (Ilian Bergala) that of course must be spiced up with a conflict: and what do writers choose for that? Paula hitting puberty at the wrong time and her mother proudly harboring the "crime weapon". Which family would do such a humiliating thing? That was a major turn-off.
Ma and Pa Bélier behave in a way that oscillates between dim-wittedness and abuse, weakening the conflict with their daughter: they can't let her go because they need her and their deafness "allows" them to ignore her talent. In fact, had the plot trimmed all the peripheral elements and stuck to the parental conflict and the relationship with Mr. Thomasson (Eric Elsonimo), it could have worked better. But Lartigau wanted to milk the dumb teenage film formula to the extreme and make most of Paula's troubles resulting from one simple thing: she doesn't tell Thomasson that her parents are deaf.
Still, in 2014, the film was one of the most successful of the year, a popular success. Why? Maybe the casting, Viard playing it goofy, Damiens playing it straight, or maybe it's true there's something about Sardou's music. I concede there's a touching climactic scene that ties the plot together and offers the one great emotional moment in the film: the song "I Fly", the swan song of a boy about to commit suicide, translated -in the film- into the desire to leave the family nest. When Paula finishes, there's an ovation and the loudly whispered "Bravo" from Viard touched me so deeply I wish the film had a few moments like this, genuine, spontaneous and real.
As for Louane, as much as I enjoy her as a singer and as I feel sorry for her real-life story, she needed more coaching, something in the intonations of her voice felt like just 'reading' or trying to match the 'said' with the 'signed' and it could have been easily improved.
At the end this is a charming little film at best but if it wasn't for the American remake "CODA" being the Best Picture winner, I would have waited a little more. The film is good but doesn't fly very high, at least Paule does at the end, which is satisfying enough. I guess...