La maison des bois 1971
52min | Drama | TV Mini-Series (1971– )
User review:
Set in the French countryside during the Great War of 1914-18 Pialat’s extraordinary seven episode TV serial extends the themes of his debut feature L’Enfance Nue, the director however having much more freedom and time to explore the nature of childhood and the impact on children abandoned by their parents. The series focuses on the experiences of three children (including even Michel Tarrazon, the young star of the earlier movie) living out in the country with gamekeeper Albert and Maman Jeanne on the country estate of a Marquis. The gamekeeper and his wife have their own older children, Marcel and Marguerite, but the three boys have been sent there by their parents who have been caught up in the war, the fathers called up to the front, the mothers simply unable to look after them in the present climate.
Quand j’avais 5 ans je m’ai tué 1994
1h 40min | Drama | 2 February 1994 (France)
Storyline:
This film is about Gils, a young boy (about ten) in a juvenile mental hospital in 1950’s France. Flashbacks recount his conflicts with authority and his strong relationship with Jessica, a similarly rebellious schoolmate. Simultaneously, a compassionate doctor develops a trusting friendship with Gils, which a higher-ranking authoritarian doctor tries to thwart.
Zip and Zap and the Captain’s Island 2016
Zipi y Zape y la Isla del Capitán (original title) Adventure | 29 July 2016 (Spain)
Storyline:
It’s Christmas and Zip and Zap are up to their old tricks. But this time they’ve gone too far and their punishment will be no Christmas vacation and a seemingly boring boat trip with their parents instead. To their surprise, the destination is a spectacular remote island. But a terrifying storm rolls in and they’re forced to seek shelter at a mansion belonging to the eccentric Miss Pam, where children without families enjoy a paradise with no rules. Helped by their new friends, Flecky, Macky and Pippi, the brothers discover that their parents’ sudden disappearance in the middle of the night is related to the mysterious secret behind the island and its strange inhabitants.
Le vieil homme et l’enfant 1967
1h 30min | Comedy, Drama | 11 March 1967 (France)
Storyline:
Claude is a Jew. Because of the risks of an arrest (France is occupied by the Nazis), his parents send him away to an elderly couple in the country. Pepe, the husband, is a Petain supporter and a anti-Semite, but he does not know about Claude’s religion. The film is the story of their growing mutual affection.
Preparez vos mouchoirs 1978
Préparez vos mouchoirs (original title)
1h 48min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | 11 January 1978 (France)
Storyline:
Solange is depressed: she’s stopped smiling, she eats little, she says less. She has fainting fits. Her husband Raoul seeks to save her by enlisting Stephane, a stranger, to be her lover. Although he listens to Mozart and has every Pocket Book arranged in alphabetical order, Stephane fails to cheer Solange. She knits. She does housework. Everyone, including their neighbor a vegetable vendor, agrees that she needs a child, yet she fails to get pregnant by either lover. The three take a job running a kids’ summer camp where they meet Christian, the precocious 13-year-old son of the local factory manager. It is Christian who restores Solange to laughter.
La vie de Jesus 1997
La vie de Jésus (original title)
1h 36min | Drama, Romance | 4 June 1997 (France)
Storyline:
A social movie about current life in the north of France. Freddy and his friends are all unemployed. They pass away time by wandering around on their motorcycles and by directing their aggressive feelings towards Arab immigrants. Freddy is in love with Marie, a cashier at a local supermarket. When she is proposed to by Kader, a young Arab man, Freddy and his friends have an idea: they decide to punish Kader for what they call “such a provocation.” After they have raped another girl, Marie finally commits to Kader, which seals his fate.
Don’t Look Down 2008
No mires para abajo (original title)
1h 25min | Drama, Romance | 30 October 2008 (Argentina)
Storyline:
Coming of age. In Buenos Aires, Eloy is on the verge of manhood. He studies physics, helps with the family headstone business, and does advertising – handing out flyers while walking on stilts or wearing an empanada costume. When his melancholy father dies, Eloy imagines that his father visits him at night; the explanation is more pedestrian – Eloy has started sleepwalking. Things change abruptly: while sleepwalking, he falls through an open skylight into the bed of Elvira, a young woman from Barcelona visiting her grandmother. Elvira invites Eloy to become her lover and teaches him Tantric sex. Eloy discovers bliss. And his father?
Ricky leaves Hong Kong for Switzerland to look for the lost soul and the past of his deceased Swiss lover, Pascal. Ricky struggles with the confusion of memories, reality and illusion.
Glasskar 2002
Glasskår (original title)
1h 16min | Drama, Family | 15 February 2002 (Norway)
User review:
Norwegian director Berg takes an unusual approach in this film about a young teen boy: He makes an honest, artistic film with adult production values that actually speaks to kids. The content may seem a bit grown up, but it’s right where these children live! Sometime in the 1980s, Viktor (Evjen), a sharp, perceptive 13-year-old who’s afraid he will never be as cool as his big brother OK (Lauritzsen). His pals (Eidissen and Stigar) seem to feel the same, so they form a band just to get the girls’ attention, even though none of them can play an instrument. Meanwhile, Viktor knows something’s up in his family. His parents (Kokkin and Kolsrud) are not talking to him, while OK tells him secrets he finds hard to believe. Meanwhile, Viktor notices a new girl (Johansen) and gets entangled with the local thug (Rafaelsen) and his girlfriend (Gjertsen). Basically, Viktor knows far more than anyone gives him credit for. And he cooler than all of them put together!
While the filmmaking itself is profoundly un-flashy, Berg captures the story beautifully. This is rich, meaningful cinema–thoroughly entertaining in its use of humour and unexpected adventures to keep us engaged, and then deepening it with a fairly intense examination of family communication (what the film is really about, as opposed to more obvious themes). Why do adults lie and keep the truth from children? Sometimes this is a little heavy-handed, but it’s never sentimental at all, and Berg gets terrific, natural, edgy performances from the entire cast. Evjen is especially good, making Viktor a very intriguing character we like instantly and then learn to respect (he becomes a bit too saintly at the end, but never mind). It’s rare to find a film about children made with this level of integrity and truthfulness; so keep an eye out for it.
