Henrick Vartanian
“FATHER OF MY CHILDREN” (Le père de mes enfants); 2009 – Country: France Genre: Drama Runtime: 110 mins – Screenplay and director: Mia Hansen-Love; Cast: Alice De Lencquesaing, Alice Gautier, Chiara Caselli, Louis-Do De Lencquesaing, Manelle Driss
Synopsis: Mia Hansen-Love’s award winning film about an art-house film producer Grégoire Canvel (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), fighting to keep his films in production while batteling his creditors and struggling to be a great husband and family man. Mainly inspired by legendary French independent film producer Humbert Balsan’s life in front and then behind the camera, the film follows Gregoire’s hectic daily life and the day-to-day juggling act that drives a perfectly capable, determined man into depression and ultimately despair.
This was not a simple film nor simply taken but simply put, it was sort of a “hello?” film. As in, “hello? What do you mean it’s finished?” You mean I invest all this time into this story and at the end that’s the only thing you want to show me? I must point out that only in a non-American film is there so much screen time spent on backstory, giving us a good look into the main players, and in return connecting us deeper to them. That’s a great gift from a filmmaker. But then, as any type of a movie goer, I expected more. What next? What about the lives of all these women in Gregoire’s life and what became of them? Now I understand this movie is not made for the multiplex audiences, and I am not such a multiplex attending sort of a guy, but as it was, the film took way too long, it was slow and a bit over-indulging. Beautiful scenary, gorgeous landscapes, wonderfully acted, But sadly, this film just lost momentum and came to a bland ending. Too much set up, with a dramatic turn of events to underperform like that! – Just tell me how the family got through it already…, and then tell me more about these women. In short: Wait for the DVD and if you watch it, make the time to sit down and observe it properly.
-H. Vartanian