{"id":24559,"date":"2019-09-11T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T05:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=24559"},"modified":"2025-12-04T22:35:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:35:54","slug":"a-family-celebration-defeated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/cinema\/films\/a-family-celebration-defeated\/","title":{"rendered":"A defeated family party"},"content":{"rendered":"

In C\u00e9dric Kahn's new film, currently in theaters, Catherine Deneuve plays a grandmother who wants to celebrate her birthday surrounded by all her nearest and dearest. But that's without counting on the fact that family is hell, as someone else might have said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In an interview published in our columns a year ago, French filmmaker Franck Ribi\u00e8re.., producer of <\/a>The world's most murdered woman<\/a><\/em>, The French film industry's biggest mistake was the Nouvelle Vague, and its second biggest mistake is to stay with it. It's true that there are countless French auteur films that are boredom-inducing for the viewer and intellectual masturbation for the director. But not all these films are mediocre; some are even excellent. Case in point Family celebrations<\/em>, released in French-speaking Switzerland today, is anything but a turnip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rising tension<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u00abToday is my birthday and I'd like us to talk only about happy things\u00bb<\/em>, says Andr\u00e9a (Catherine Deneuve, truer than ever) a quarter of the way through the film. Up to that point, the plot had settled as best it could, the cinematography had shown nothing original, and the dialogue was banal. In short, the audience feared the worst. But this sentence falls so perfectly into the film that, voila, here we are; these characters, here we are, we believe in them. And we hope with all our might that this touching grandmother's plea will be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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