Isabelle's view: Kindness

Christmas, its magic, its family meals... and its Hollywood productions. It's all there: a mawkish plot, good feelings and a predictable happy ending. In short, a «gentle» film. But what does that mean? First thoughts from 2023.

In a famous line from the cult film Le père Noël est une ordure, Pierre, a slightly uptight volunteer at the SOS Détresse Amitié association, lets himself go with a little jibe at Madame Musquin, the president: «I don't like to say bad things about people, but she is indeed nice.»

Pierre's prudish colleague, Thérèse, chuckles awkwardly, as the word is full of «wit». The coordinating conjunction «but» introduced by Pierre marks an opposition between the two parts of his sentence, and expresses his true intention, which is to «speak ill» of Madame Musquin. The spectator also laughs, a little from the contena