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Customer Reviews of Un Air de Famille

French Comedy Has A Pungent Air
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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Family strife
If like me you like French films, you will like this one. There is no plot to speak of and no time wasted in car-chases and violent action sequences. There is just fascinating dialogue and the interaction of intereresting characters, plus the expression of real emotion and nuances of feeling. There is an intimacy with the characters that is typically French and which the Americans rarely achieve. At the end of the film you feel you know and understand these people and are wiser for having known them.

I loved the performance of Catherine Frot in the film. She was delicious and made the character of Yolande incredibly appealing and lovable. What a crying shame she should have shackled herself to such a self-centred, unappreciative husband. He was the luckiest man alive and yet too obtuse to realize it. How appallingly sad.

The high-light of the film for me was the little dance Yolande had with the quiet,philosophic bar-man Denis, played by Jean Pierre Darroussin, who, revealing his kind heart, offered to dance with her when her insensitive husband refused - despite the fact that it was supposed to be her birthday celebration. Denis's skillful dancing surprised them all, and disclosed a whole new aspect of his personality. There is a touching moment at the bar when Yolande, suspecting Betty's romantic interest and trying to encourage it, says to her with a lovely winsome expression; "He's a good dancer." And at the end of the film when Betty and Denis are seen to declare their love for each other, she says delightedly, to the chagrin of her snobbish and spiteful mother-in-law; "You know what this means? It means he's going to be part of the family."

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"Dogs never disappoint you."
Friday nights are 'family nights' for the Menard family. Henri Menard (Jean-Pierre Bacri) operates the family's drab business, "The Sleepy Dad's Cafe", and every Friday, siblings Phillipe (Wladimir Yordanoff) and Betty (Agnes Jaoui)--along with their domineering mother--arrive at the cafe to spend a family evening together. This weekly event is supposed to be fun, but it's little more than a duty for the participants. On this particular Friday, it is Phillipe's wife, Yolande's birthday. Henri's wife, Arlette, is nowhere to be found. She's left Henri to "think things over." Consequently, Henri is in an even fouler mood than usual, and the evening that is supposed to be spent celebrating Yolande's birthday is spent in petty bickering instead.

Nothing very much happens in this film--and that's the way it's supposed to be. Director Cedric Klapisch turns the camera on, and the interactions between the Menards begin. Henri is the underachiever in the family, but then again, he assumed the unglamorous responsibility of the family business. Brother Phillipe is the Marketing VP of a large corporation, and a television interview sends him reeling into insecurity. The interview becomes a focal point of Phillipe's evening while he snipes at his wife and complains about his sister, Betty. Betty is busy hiding her on and off romance from her mother, defending Henri, and complaining against the manner if which poor downtrodden Yolande is neglected. Every comment from a family member becomes an opportunity to snipe about some old grievance, and during the course of the evening everyone is provoked into saying things they regret. "Un Air de Famille" presents the claustrophic yet disinhibited atmosphere of bad manners masquerading as an excuse for 'caring' about family members. The two outsiders here--Denis and Yolande emerge as the nicest, kindest people in the film. They remain spectators and victims of the Menard family dynamic. If the film feels like a stage play to you, that's because it originally was. This is a French language film with English subtitles--displacedhuman