By Preston Wilder
It’s great that our multiplex is willing to take a chance on a gentle French comedy like La Famille Bélier – though the film sold over 7 million tickets in France, where 18-year-old lead actress Louane Emera was a semi-finalist on The Voice – and it’s great that we apparently have enough of a French community to make it worthwhile, but be warned that outsiders may struggle with this one. The songs of Michel Sardou feature heavily, Sardou being something of a legend in France but almost unknown internationally, while Eric Elmosnino plays an embittered music teacher who’s stuck in a small town and hating it: the locals are such hicks, he sneers, they even think Gérard Lenorman is a Norman – and I guess the joke is decipherable even if, like me, you don’t know who M. Lenorman is (another French singer, apparently), but it’s not the same somehow.
There are other ways in which La Famille Bélier is distinctively French. The titular family – Dad, Mum, two teenage kids – are cheese farmers living in the sticks, yet country life isn’t viewed as quaint as it might be in a British or American movie (France is still proud of its farmers), nor does young Louane spend the whole film pining for the city. The parents, played by Karin Viard and Francois Damiens, are also quite politically incorrect, and that’s perfectly fine. Mum celebrates Paula’s first date with the signed equivalent of ‘Thank God, we thought you were a lesbian!’, while Dad names a newborn calf ‘Obama’ (because he’s black) and later opines that Obama ran for President despite the “disadvantage” of being black just as he himself wants to run for Mayor despite the handicap of being deaf. We know what he means, but they wouldn’t have phrased it quite like that in Hollywood.
The parents are deaf, by the way; I should probably have mentioned that earlier. So is Louane’s younger brother, our heroine being the only hearing and talking member of the clan (note that some scenes are in sign language with Greek subtitles) – making it ironic that she has a golden singing voice which, significantly, she’s reluctant to unleash, as if subconsciously seeing it as a betrayal of her family. Elmosnino urges her to leave the farm and audition for a music school in Paris – but our heroine feels a responsibility, being the sole interpreter between her fellow Béliers and the rest of the world.
What will happen? I won’t spoil the details – but note that Michel Sardou has a song called ‘Je vole’ (‘I’m Flying’), and the opening lines of this song translate as “My dear parents, I’m leaving / I love you, but I’m leaving”. Given the plot, the rest should be obvious (turns out Louane can sing and sign at the same time) – though in fact the climax is a tearjerker even if you see it coming, tugging hard at a universal moment that goes beyond being French: the sadness of a parent when a child flies the nest, inescapably blended with pride at seeing them make their way in the world.
La Famille Bélier is a poorly made film that’s nonetheless touching. The opening scenes give family life a neat tweak – the Béliers go through their morning routine without a word, nodding ‘good morning’s and holding out their cups to be filled, but the silence isn’t because everyone’s grumpy, it’s because everyone’s deaf – but the script is far too bitty, collapsing in a welter of sub-plots. Dad’s running for Mayor, Mum suffers from eczema, Younger Bro tries to have sex with Louane’s friend and turns out to be allergic to condoms. The family are oversexed in general (except Louane, who’s just got her period despite looking like she’s ready for college), which is fair enough except that it comes across as reverse discrimination, bigging up the ‘handicapped’ people to forestall any pity. The parents don’t actually have much personality, beyond being deaf, inappropriate and relentlessly horny.
They don’t make films like this in Hollywood, for better and worse. ‘Better’ because Famille Bélier is scrappy and unfocused, full of jokes that thud and scenes that go nowhere; ‘worse’ because there’s something quite human in its cheesy emotional directness. American movies are obsessed with family, forever stopping the plot dead so someone can say ‘We’re family’ or ‘You don’t give up on family’ or something equally inane – but they don’t have the physical, passionate celebration of family that ends this film, a kind of frenzied group-hug where all four Béliers embrace, paw and squeeze each other with an animal energy that’s both affecting (touch becomes more important when you can’t hear or talk) and almost frightening. Only in France, probably.
DIRECTED BY Eric Lartigau
STARRING Louane Emera, Karin Viard, Eric Elmosino
France 201 106 mins
In French and sign language, with Greek subtitles
