Ma saison préférée (1993) is a French movie shown in the U.S. with the translated title My Favorite Season. It was co-written and directed by André Téchiné.
Catherine Deneuve stars as Emilie, a lawyer. Daniel Auteuil stars as her brother, Antoine. He's supposed to be a neurosurgeon, but that casting didn't work. (Auteuil is a great actor, but he doesn't know how to portray a neurosurgeon.)
Marthe Villalonga stars as their widowed mother. She's a consummate actor, well suited to the role.
Jean-Pierre Bouvier plays Bruno, Emilie's husband. Anthony Prada portrays Lucien, their son. Chiara Mastroianni plays their daughter, Anne. (Mastroianni is, in fact, Deneuve's daughter.) Carmen Chaplin (Charlie Chaplins's granddaughter) plays a young Moroccan woman, Khadija. She's Lucien's girlfriend, which doesn't work, because she's too intelligent and beautiful to hand out with such a jerk.
So, we have seven talented actors all looking for a reason to be on the screen. They pair up and split up in multiple ways, and they talk about matters like what to do about mom's fainting spells. They don't have a clue about what they should do, which makes no sense, because one is a lawyer and one a neurosurgeon.
As far as I can tell, no one likes anyone, except that the mother starts out by preferring her son to her daughter. After a while, the film ends, with nothing much resolved. I consider it a waste of truly capable actors , who deserve a better movie.
The film would probably look attractive on the large screen, because of the views of the beautiful French countryside. However, it worked well enough on the small screen. My Favorite Season has a relatively weak IMDb rating of 7.0. I agreed with the other raters, and rated it 7.
Catherine Deneuve stars as Emilie, a lawyer. Daniel Auteuil stars as her brother, Antoine. He's supposed to be a neurosurgeon, but that casting didn't work. (Auteuil is a great actor, but he doesn't know how to portray a neurosurgeon.)
Marthe Villalonga stars as their widowed mother. She's a consummate actor, well suited to the role.
Jean-Pierre Bouvier plays Bruno, Emilie's husband. Anthony Prada portrays Lucien, their son. Chiara Mastroianni plays their daughter, Anne. (Mastroianni is, in fact, Deneuve's daughter.) Carmen Chaplin (Charlie Chaplins's granddaughter) plays a young Moroccan woman, Khadija. She's Lucien's girlfriend, which doesn't work, because she's too intelligent and beautiful to hand out with such a jerk.
So, we have seven talented actors all looking for a reason to be on the screen. They pair up and split up in multiple ways, and they talk about matters like what to do about mom's fainting spells. They don't have a clue about what they should do, which makes no sense, because one is a lawyer and one a neurosurgeon.
As far as I can tell, no one likes anyone, except that the mother starts out by preferring her son to her daughter. After a while, the film ends, with nothing much resolved. I consider it a waste of truly capable actors , who deserve a better movie.
The film would probably look attractive on the large screen, because of the views of the beautiful French countryside. However, it worked well enough on the small screen. My Favorite Season has a relatively weak IMDb rating of 7.0. I agreed with the other raters, and rated it 7.