movie reviews
A Christmas Tale (Un conte de noël)
A Christmas Tale (Un conte de noël)
The holidays are meant to be joyous occasions where families come together to rejoice in each other’s company—in theory, at least. In practice, families are far more bizarre than the outside world could ever know. The holidays can be a time of awkward encounters, airing of family drama, and the cataclysmic mixing of outsiders. A Christmas Tale (Un conte de noël), captures family awkwardness and absurdity in a well-built story that is, well, totally French.
The film tells the intricately woven tale of Junon (played by French national treasure Catherine Deneuve), an aging mother of three who has developed leukemia. The family is not unfamiliar with the disease; many years earlier Junon and her husband Abel (Jean-Paul Roussillon) had a child with leukemia that their daughter, Elizabeth (Anne Consigny), was unable to donate her bone marrow to. In an attempt to provide a new donor, the couple had a third child, Henri, but before they could use his marrow, his afflicted brother died. Now, many years later, Junon contracts the disease, and she brings her feuding family back together for the holidays for one last visit and an attempt to find a new donor who can extend her life.
Tonally more akin to Rachel Getting Married than, say, Meet the Fockers, A Christmas Tale Frenches up the family-drama drama. As you can expect, the French philosophical trio appears in the film: existentialism, ennui, and angst (that’s actually German, but who’s counting). The marvelous Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Munich) plays the adult Henri, a self-destructive self loather who visits the family after being “banished” for five years by his sister Elizabeth. As in many family dramas, Henri is the knife that cuts the ligature of their community. His wreckless behavior eventually takes its toll on his mother when it is revealed that his blood could be compatible for her, but his lifestyle made him fragile. Luckily Junon’s meek and tormented grandson Paul is also compatible, but will he accept the responsibility for her life?
The emotional, relatable story is grounded in the refreshing normality of the characters, which keeps the film from being an experiment in the excruciatingly depressing. In addition, the magic realist moments and forays into style-heavy visuals dampen the serious subject matter. The film begins with a sort of silhouette theater (much like the films of artist Kara Walker), to imaginatively show the genetic destiny of the family. Strangely beautiful clips of cellular growth become a sort of ballet within the body as cells split to an orchestral score. Far from being distracting, these moments act as interludes between the emotional action.
Unafraid of death, the film bravely confronts it head on, as Junon manages her fate with great courage. It shows that no matter what you do, your family is still your family. You can abandon them, fight with them, and deny them, but that changes nothing. Family is all about blood.
—Drew Tewksbury, Artist Direct
11.19.08
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