Un Air De Famille
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Movie Reviews of Un Air De Famille
Movie Review: A refreshingly hilarious movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I borrowed the movie on VHS from my local library to "brush up" on my college French. (Don't worry, there are English subtitles.) The movie turned out to be one of the funniest and most poignant movies I had seen in a very long time.
The movie explores a dysfunctional family, and what happens when they come together for an evening dinner/family outing: two brothers (and their wives), the tomboy sister (and her secret boyfriend), and their overbearing mother who is always making barbed, hurtful remarks (in the form of being "helpful" or dispensing motherly advice.)
When they come together, all hell breaks out and the hilarity begins: heated exchanges, accusations, lie, threats, phone calls, etc. I laughed so hard and so much at this movie. It isn't raunchy Adam Sandler-humor; it's intelligent, sophisicated, non-vulgar humor. And it's refreshing.
I felt like I was watching my own family on TV. Any viewer can relate to this family because the movie isn't about French families; it's about families everywhere, especially yours, and the writing and the cast are superb. This movie is truly great.
Movie Review: Like an episode of "Raymond" rewritten by Edward Albee
Summary: 5 Stars
This is at the intersection of two genres: the family comedy with hilarious archetypes (the long-running "Everybody loves Raymond" CBS comedy comes to mind) and the family drama where closets are ripped open for skeletons to spill out (think "Long Day's Journey Into Night"). This clever film from a long running play makes you realize how much in common there is between a family comedy and a family tragedy. Some scenes are hanging in between, and you don't quite know whether to laugh or shudder. At the end of this movie, you have that sweaty-chilly feeling that the party has lasted too long, like at the end of "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?". Recommended, especially if you know French families.Movie Review: Fascinating and funny insight into the French
Summary: 5 Stars
A truly excellent film which is both funny and insightful. As always the French are the masters of capturing the subtlety and strengths of human psychology. Highly recommended to all who enjoy French cinema and the exploration of human relationships in all their guises.Movie Review: French cinema comes back, due to Arab originated Director...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is so funny, a real family story, you have to see the cast, is extremely well directed, and as a French, I say Kaplish is the best French young Director out there...Movie Review: French Comedy Has A Pungent Air
Summary: 4 Stars
A major hit in France where it took several Cesars, Cedric Klaspich's wry comedy about a contentious family who meet every Friday for dinner didn't fare so well with American critics or audiences. What a shame! This is a very entertaining ensemble piece and Klaspich's direction is so assured that the film moves along gracefully even though it's mainly set in a dingy bar on the outskirts of Paris. Jean-Pierre Bacri plays the owner of the bar and the host of the reunion with his social-climbing brother and his uptight, mousy sister-in-law (a sensational Catherine Frot), ne'er-do-well sister, and harridan mother. Bacri uses his hounddog face and weary demeanour (he looks like he hasn't slept in two months) to create a hilarous and despearate portrait of a man whose life hasn't amounted to much and who keeps getting reminded of it. He's perfectly complemented by a fine cast whose characters don't ask for our sympathy but get it anyway - Agnes Jaoui as his lonely and cynical sister, Jean-Pierre Darrousin as his ostensibly simpleton assistant and Catherine Frot as his meek sister-in-law are particular standouts (the latter two share a wonderful dancing scene together). While most films are directed to the special effects or the persona of this or that star, Klaspich has directed "Un Air de Famille" to get the actors to play off each other. And they respond by getting such jagged, funny rhythms going between them that they lift the movie out of its stagebound setting - it was originally a play written by Bacri and Jaoui - and into a comic world of its own. Much like his last film, "When the Cat's Away," Klaspich has an observant and quiet approach which gets at the nuances of people's relationships even when they're broadly comic as they are here (the protagonist in "Cat's Away" had no contact with the outside world while the people in "Famille" know each other so well that they're all fed up and tense). Klaspich works in a deliberately minor-key - much like Claude Sautet but without the chill of high culture - and his style is unobtrusive: he lets his actors shine. Few films actually portray the tense and acerbic relations family members often share in such a comic light but "Famille" isn't cynical or mean-spirited. Despite its occassional lulls (especially in the last half-hour), the film shows the inherent comedy in the peculiar dynamics of this family and their frustrations and conflicts -- these people drive each other nuts and yet they stay together too. A comedy about family dysfunction, "Un Air de Famille" allows its actors to work in perfect comic harmony.
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