Les invités de mon père (2010) Reviews

• Bittersweet comedy

  GLanoue2011-02-27

  I think you have to go pretty far back in time to get Hollywood versions of this type of comedy, like the banter in Girl Friday. This comedy in the French style revolves around class issues, albeit subtle ones in this case. Here, an old battle-scared socialist doctor marries, unbeknown to his own bourgeoisified children, a beautiful but blowsy Moldovan refugee to help her get her papers. He becomes besotted, and she exploits him just a bit too much for his children's taste and settled values. Everything revolves around the tension this creates in the children's lives, but through the tension and even vicious infighting, there are a lot of great lines and insightful psychology. Tatiana's déclassé manners and image at first even loosens up the uptight children, but when daddy disinherits them to provide for his spring bride's future, things fall apart. The ending (which I won't reveal) is a bit weak, but the rest, especially the dialogue and the sparkling acting by everyone involved are just wonderful. Of course, French films and their humour often revolve around this style of acting, where the actor embodies a Commedia dell'arte-style stereotype, except here it's a class and not a gender or sexual identity (this is France, not Italy). That's the hard part to translate to American audiences, first, literally in the subtitles and also in the larger sense, when Americans try to remake these French classics. How can one bring class tensions into the picture and make them meaningful to American audiences without falling into the parody of Trading Places (remember, Dan Ackroyd is a Yalie because he has a "posh" accent, and Eddie Murphy is street because, well, because he's Eddie Murphy) ? That's the part that often takes these movies beyond the comedic and into bittersweet truths. This is a great movie and definitely worth finding it, though I can't vouch for how it's subtitled (saw it in French).

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• Shows how intelligent a glossy French comedy can be

  Chris Knipp2010-06-09

  An interesting glossy French bourgeois comedy that has serious overtones. This is a study of the blindness of do-gooding, the selfishness of an old man, seeking to rediscover his youth, the limits of charity. A wealthy man, a retired doctor, takes in an eastern European woman and her young daughter and marries her so she can work in France and eventually have secure status. Little by little he falls in love with her and they become sexually involved despite the great gap between their ages. From the beginning the man's daughter and son find the woman offensive, crude, annoying. Only later they realize that she is threatening to destroy their sense of family and cut them off from their father and their patrimony. Fabrice Lucchini has never been better than he is here as the worldly-wise lawyer son Arnaud Paumelle, who at first grants the father the right to do what he wants, but then reaches the point where he must put his foot down. Karin Viard is excellent as Arnaud's doctor sister, whose confusion at the family disruption is expressed by an affair with her young male associate. Michel Aumont is solid as the retired doctor father Lucien, who marries at the age of eighty. The issues are handled with subtlety, despite the overall comic tone. (Allociné 2.6/63 shows solid approval.) This is an example of French film comedy at its most intelligent.

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• An truly adult movie, and therefore un-American

  davdecrane2010-04-25

  A refreshing look at most every subject it covers, and the field is a broad one: baby- boomers and aging parents; adult brothers and sisters; the strains of immigration on Western societies. The set-up is cute but not revolutionary – a humanitarian in his 80s allows a young Moldovan woman and her daughter to move in with him to help regularize her immigration status. Soon thereafter he marries her. A Hollywood movie would have taken this premise and played it for all its (admittedly funny) sitcom elements. And this French version has some fun with that idea, too – all the more when Dad's status as a new Viagra user becomes clear. But the beauty of this film is that the real story belongs to the old man's son and daughter. They respond in unexpected ways to a series of moves by Dad that isolate them from his life and their inheritance, and in doing so, grow closer to each other. Sibling rivalry and recriminations are dealt with, yes, but over café au lait, or vodka and caviar, or in the more emotionally charged roles when they themselves must play unpopular parent. But growing up means accepting the loss of your parents and, if you're lucky, coming to really know your adult siblings. The ending is fitting but unexpected and, in another refreshing un-American manner, deals with a solution that many would find politically incorrect. This film reaffirms family solidarity as more important than money or modernism. While every character is human and sympathetically portrayed, there's an intriguing sociological subtext too. From an American point of view, this film is foreign in the best sense of the word. It's entertaining in a manner Hollywood fears has no payoff: a movie about adults realizing problems, even if borne in childhood, must be solved in an adult manner. And that can mean some good people get hurt. They only real villains are our own outmoded ways of dealing with our issues. Other than City Island, can you think of another American film this year that seconds this idea, even before you add humor?

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• The comedic genius of Chaplin rediscovered

  pjl-72012-02-17

  The more I see of Fabrice Luchini, the more he impresses me. I don't think I have ever encountered a comic actor with a better sense of timing and pathos. Chaplin was legendary for playing human tragedy absolutely straight, and making us laugh despite ourselves, no matter how much we might really want to cry. Luchini has the same incredible skill. A twist of the mouth, an arch of the eyebrow, a lowering of the gaze, and disaster is transformed into hilarity. In his period pieces like Molière or Beaumarchais he was superb, but you have to know your French classics to really appreciate his achievement. In this contemporary gem we see him at his very best. The would be PC tolerant son of an aging radical, he has to balance his political correctness against his bourgeois ideas of family and social order, all the while dealing with his rôle as a husband, a father and a successful lawyer. The dialogue is understated - there are no belly laughs in this comedy, but as the plot unrolls, we get a real feel of the tensions inherent in present day urban living - family demands, career demands, social requirements, socio-political issues, you name it. A sense of humour is given us to cope with the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." Fabrice Luchini handles it all with impeccable restraint. Restraint goes out the window, though, for Karin Viard in the rôle of his sister. Her over-the-top reaction to the family situation results in a torrid relationship with her partner in her medical practice that provides the near slapstick relief that the plot demands. Supporting cameos by a couple of up and coming young child actors - Max Renaudin and Emma Siniavski serve to provide the gilding of the lily. Watch it and rejoice.

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• The darker side of 'Welcome'

  guy-bellinger2010-04-09

  'Les invités de mon père' is all the more interesting as it comes one year after 'Welcome', Philippe Lioret's masterpiece taking stock of France's current plague: the indiscriminate hunt for illegal immigrants with a view to attracting far-right voters. In Anne Le Ny's new film, there is also an undocumented alien and a man who helps her but these two persons are much less likable than Bilal, the Kurdish fugitive in love (Firat Ayverdi) and Simon, the swimming instructor who moves heaven and earth to help him achieve his aim (Vincent Lindon). The savior here is a life-long human rights activist, retired Medicine Doctor Lucien Paumelle (Michel Aumont) and the victim is a Moldavian mother by the name of Tatiana (Veronica Novak). But things are not so straight as they first appear. Indeed Lucien is eighty and during a family dinner he bluntly informs his close relatives that ... he has just contracted a marriage of convenience with Tatiana. And the refugee happens to be a twenty-eight-year old bimbo! On the other hand, Tatiana has nothing to do with the sacrificial lamb expected: she is sexy, particular about her appearance, tough, somewhat racist and she soon complains about her "husband" taking advantage of the situation... As for Lucien, due to the ambiguities of the situation, his secular saint image is seriously blemished due to the ambiguities in the aforementioned situation. A praiseworthy approach which avoids the easy option: even if identification with these two characters is not immediate, the viewers of 'Les invités de mon père' come to the same conclusion, all things considered, as those of 'Welcome' : immigrants who flee poverty, oppression or war have their dignity and must be respected as citizens of the world and, accordingly, given a break. Even if Tatiana is not such a pleasant person, she has a single -respectable - aim, securing her daughter's future and she is prepared to do everything for that. Wouldn't you do the same thing if you were in her place? As a matter of fact, if you can see both films, you will have a comprehensive view of the problem of illegal immigration, in France and elsewhere as they complement each other to perfection. All that sounds very serious ... and it is. But this movie does not only provoke people to think, it proves very entertaining as well. As you can imagine, the reaction of the family is hilarious. How could it be otherwise in such a ludicrous situation? And the comic talents of Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard and Michel Aumont no longer need to be proved. In other respects, Luchini is particularly admirable in a rich complex role. He has forgotten his usual mannerisms and manages to give depth to his character, making him more and more engaging as the story unfurls. This is Anne Le Ny's second film. Her first opus, 'Ceux qui restent' was already above average. A promising career indeed.

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