Mommy is at the Hairdresser's (...Maman est chez le coiffeur)
It's summer 1966. Time to enjoy summer vacation, total freedom, running wild in the fields, and crazy giggles with friends.
...But as she becomes more aware of the dreams, sorrows and lies of the people closest to her, Élise sees her mother's sudden abandonment thoroughly disrupt her family. While her brother Coco stubbornly seeks refuge in constructing a super car, the youngest, Benoît, plummets deep into his own internal world, retreating ever-further in the furnace room. As for her father, he is simply overwhelmed by the situation. Élise decides to take the helm of her drifting family in a poignant attempt to save them. With support from the living and breathing surrounding nature and the silent comfort Monsieur Mouche offers, Élise is on the verge of experiencing a summer unlike any other.
Member Reviews
A bit overdone - RobBC
With long languorous shots of glowing cornfields and lazy rivers director Léa Pool evokes hazy childhood memories of summer vacation, that special time in our lives when skies were somehow bluer and grass so much greener. Furthermore her many little touches, from patterned vinyl furniture and flowery fashions to old television footage and flippy hair-dos capture the flavour of the late 1960’s perfectly while a piercing score of classical piano and sultry torch songs ties it all together. Lastly, her stellar cast of actors are both physically beautiful and enormously talented. Unfortunately she often ices the cake more than is necessary and quietly slips into Spielberg territory with its inflated nostalgia and dripping sense of poignancy; a closing montage in particular threatens to yank our heartstrings right out of our chests. And although her actors handle the material with great aplomb, the children are fantastic, I couldn’t help but feel a subtle artifice and manipulation at work which detracted from what was otherwise an assured and finely nuanced film.In an elite class - Diversitility
This is a beautiful, subtle, moving film.It reminds me books such as Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro and Who Has Seen The Wind by W. O. Mitchell. There are also echoes of a great old Diane Kurys film called Diabolo Menthe, another bittersweet coming of age film. The acting and music are suberb! All three child actors are extraordinary. Their confusion and sadness are subtly conveyed.Lea Pool is a very fine director who understands the ironies and complexties of life and love. A must see for cinephiles!pas plus vert chez le voisin - JOE52
This movie shows that the grass is not grenner at your neighbor. It's the story of a perfect famiily who lives in a perfect neighborhood where lives pefect famillies. One day the mother leaves the house to go live in London. It causes traumendous damage to the kids and husband. Then we realise that in this perfect world every familly as thier secret and dark sides
Member Reviews
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A bit overdone - RobBC
With long languorous shots of glowing cornfields and lazy rivers director Léa Pool evokes hazy childhood memories of summer vacation, that special time in our lives when skies were somehow bluer and grass so much greener. Furthermore her many little touches, ...In an elite class - Diversitility
This is a beautiful, subtle, moving film.It reminds me books such as Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro and Who Has Seen The Wind by W. O. Mitchell. There are also echoes of a great old Diane Kurys film called Diabolo Menthe, another bittersweet coming ...pas plus vert chez le voisin - JOE52
This movie shows that the grass is not grenner at your neighbor. It's the story of a perfect famiily who lives in a perfect neighborhood where lives pefect famillies. One day the mother leaves the house to go live in London. It causes traumendous damage ...