Cast: Sabine Azéma, Emmanuelle Béart, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Claude Rich, Françoise Fabian, Christopher Thompson, Jean-Pierre Darroussin
Director: Danièle Thompson
Producer: Alain Sarde
Screenplay: Danièle Thompson, Christopher Thompson
Cinematography: Robert Fraisse, Jean Harnois
Music: Michel Legrand
U.S. Distributor: Empire Films
In French with subtitles
For anyone who is convinced that French movies must always deal with deep and existential issues, Denièle Thompson's La Bûche argues otherwise. A relatively straightforward motion picture dealing with the tangled relationships within a dysfunctional family, La Bûche unfolds against a backdrop drenched with holiday merriment and good cheer. Individual scenes are effective and the acting is uniformly good, but, as a whole, La Bûche never quite escapes from the familiar melodramatic cavern in which it becomes trapped.
With a story that echoes American productions like Home for the Holidays and The Myth of Fingerprints, La Bûche examines how a holiday family get-together isn't always a source of joy and goodwill. Five days before Christmas, Yvette's (Françoise Fabian) second husband dies. Her three daughters, Louba (Sabine Azéma), Sonia (Emmanuelle Béart), and Milla (Charlotte Gainsbourg), join her at the funeral for moral support. But friction between the siblings is immediately apparent. Louba, the oldest, and Milla, the youngest, are at odds with Sonia, whom they see as vain and self-absorbed. Meanwhile, Milla has taken a partisan position in favor of her ailing father, Stanislas (Claude Rich), at her mother's expense. Sonia harbors a deep resentment towards her father, which solidifies her relationship with her mother. Meanwhile, Louba struggles to remain neutral.
Other subplots abound. At age 42, Louba is pregnant with her first child. The father is her married boyfriend, Gilbert (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), who is unwilling to turn his back on his wife and family. Sonia's husband is preparing to leave her. Milla is in her usual state of pre-Christmas "hostile depression." A stranger named Joseph (Christopher Thompson) has moved into an abandoned shed on Stanislas' property and is living there rent-free. And Yvette has a few untold secrets from years past to reveal to her first husband.
All of these things make for a reasonably good soap opera, but there are too many characters and plot threads for a 106 minute movie to address in a satisfying manner. Individuals and circumstances are explored perfunctorily. Critical pieces of background information are provided by the characters as they deliver short monologues to the camera recounting their experiences from Christmases past. And, during the last fifteen minutes, the editing becomes choppy, leaving viewers with the impression that a scene (or scenes) may have been trimmed.
Although the bulk of the screenplay is dramatic in nature, La Bûche contains three comic gems. The first, which occurs early in the film, pokes fun at the tendency of cell phones to ring at the most inappropriate of times. The second involves a very funny case of mistaken identity. And the third has two divorced parents arguing over Santa's plans for delivering toys to their daughter (of course Santa has a fax machine - he's on the cutting edge of technology).
If La Bûche's storyline disappoints, the acting rarely does. We believe in these characters because the actors make them real. Special mention goes to Sabine Azéma, whose charisma is palpable, and to Charlotte Gainsbourg, who won a Best Supporting Actress César for her work here. The rest of the cast, including French beauty Emmanuelle Béart ("dressed down" to look as frumpy as she possibly can), Claude Rich, and Françoise Fabian, perform admirably. The lone exception is Christopher Thompson, the film's co-writer and the director's son, whose approach to acting is distractingly wooden.
For longtime screenwriter Danièle Thompson, this represents her first opportunity to direct a film. Given Thompson's talent with words (she penned the witty international hit Cousin, Cousine more than two decades ago), it's ironic that the script is La Bûche's most recognizable weakness. Nevertheless, the movie was a success in France, where it did healthy business at the box office and garnered several César nominations. A triumph in Europe, however, does not translate into a triumph in North America. With the exception of a brief run at a single art house in New York City, La Bûche is not expected to receive U.S. distribution. Were it a better film, this would be a lamentable occurrence; as things are, it's not worth much more than a shrug. Those in search of a biting drama about disintegrating relationships within a dysfunctional French family are encouraged to seek out Un Air de Famille, which is available on video.
© 2000 James Berardinelli