Gamines (2009) User Reviews

a very successful family story

[david-robin · 8/10 · 22 December 2009]

First I have to admit I was, initially, reluctant to go and watch this movie, as I have not read the original book, and I feared the plot would be too sweet and sentimental. But at the end of the screening, I felt a real enthusiasm that I would like to share here :

This film takes place in France during the 60's, and tells the story of a single mother with 3 preteen girls. This mother is an Italian who long-studied and now works hard in a layer office, doing her best to succeed more than the typical migrant, and give a good life to her daughters.

During the mother's long days of work, the girls are going to the public school or spending the rest of their days at home, home-working or imagining what happened to their father and why he disappeared. All the girls know from this man is that, from time to time, he is coming to their house, knocking loudly on the door, shooting to their mother to open and talk to him. Is their father crazy? Did he leave, or did her mother threw him away? When looking at the old family photos, the couple was looking so happy... what happened?

You will have to go to the theater to learn about those 3 formidable girls, her mother, and the unknown man.

This film is lifted by its delicate image quality, and its subtle depiction of the complex relations in a family. Additionaly, the scenarist and director did a very fine job to describe how the Italian immigrants were perceived in France during the sixties.

But, most of all, I was really moved by the figure of this Italian mother, which is leaving a weak man she still loves, to make sure her daughters will have a better life.

Both young and adult actresses did a great job, while Jean-Pierre Martins perfectly characterized the overprotective yet loving godfather.

Cold movie about a supposedly Italian family in France.

[stuka24 · 3/10 · 22 January 2012]

There are thousands of films about Italian families around the world. This is probably the "less Italian" of them all. But for one character, *(Salvatore) the "classical macho", moustache and gait included, the rest of the characters have little that makes us feel they're from that country. There's a catchy Italian song that they'll repeat over an over.

Based on a novel by Sylvie Testud!, who also stars this botched film. Second film of director Éléonore Faucher.

This film is about a struggling divorced mother rearing her children on her own, "Anna Di Biaggio" (Amira Casar, from "Transylvania", "Filles perdues...", "La verite" among others, who is probably the most convincing character, having to deal with stupid lines and abrupt changes of tone in her character. Her sister is played by Lubna Azabal, also with a long career under her sleeve, including "Exiles" for instance. I'll briefly describe the family for it's a closed-knit one, just like our preconceived idea about "Italians".

Corinne, the oldest daughter, in the beginning seems to be the protagonist, but the real star is Sybille (as an adult she becomes S. Testud). Georgette is the smallest daughter, played to perfection by "Roxane Monnier" (it must be difficult to direct children that small!).

The movie is badly directed, with quirky dialogues. The scene of the father in the last quarter for instance is just nonsensical. Such an important moment and they all feign to be in a hurry. Then the "truth" emerges (trival at most, feigning dramatism). The father himself is a character that has no proper treatment in the film, he seems to have some limitations, professional and personal, but I don't think he's THAT bad for her wife and daughter not wanting to ever see him again.

There are many movies that exploit this better, from "The talented Mr. Ripley" to that famous one from NZ made in the 90s, also about women, whose name I can't recall now. *(help :)).

The only thing I really liked was how they showed family relationships down in Italy, how EVERYBODY speaks at will about "why her marriage failed", "what she should have done", "how was her husband", and the typical things that if you do belong to an Italian family, know you're going to endure. Before the dance and the collective joy, among lots of food of course :)! David-robin writing on IMDb is right that it's also of interest "the way Italians were perceived in France in the 60's". The reconstruction of the epoch is fine.

As a beauty relief male audiences will have a glimpse at bombshell Sophie Guillemin, from "Harry, un ami...", playing here a bimbo as usual.

Don't watch it unless there's really nothing else to do :).

Loose Threads

[writers_reign · 8/10 · 17 February 2016]

It was always going to be tough for Eleanore Faucher to follow her outstanding debut feature as writer-director given the quality of the sublime Brodeuses, a debut and an artist I'd mention in the same sentence as Orson Welles and Citizen Kane. Given that Welles' follow- up The Magnificent Ambersons, was butchered by the studio, RKO, who contrived to have it cut with a pair of shears it still turned out pretty good as does Fauchers' Gamines. Having begun with an original Welles turned to a novel for his second feature, as does Faucher. Those of us who are not French but love French cinema have long since ceased to be amazed at the versatility of French actresses who often - Nicole Garcia, Tonie Marshall, Noemie Lvovsky, Agnes Jaoui, Valerie Lemercier, etc, turn to directing but offhand I can think of only Josie Balasko who has published a novel, until that is, Sylvie Testud, upon whose autobiographical novel Faucher has based her movie. There are several parallels: Testud was born in Lyon to an Italian mother and a French father who left wife and daughters Sylvie and Ghislaine when Sylvie was two, and Faucher's film is set in Lyon in the seventies (Sylvie Testud was born in 1971) where Italian-born Amira Casar, as Anna, struggles to bring up three pre-teen daughters, Corinne, Sybille and Georgette, in the absence of their French father who abandoned the family. Faucher displays a sure-footedness in handling a much larger cast than Brodeuses, including a couple of set- piece large family gatherings beautifully integrated with lyrical sequences. The bulk of the running time is devoted to the childhood of the three sisters but Testud plays Sybille as an adult and, in their scenes together, contrives to appear younger than Casar despite them being the exact same age. Though it inevitably falls short of Brodeuses it is nevertheless a fine effort and well worth seeing.