An interesting and satisfying film

Published: 5 September 2010

Cherishing family: Chiara Caselli (right), as Sylvia in Father of My Children, with one of Sylvia's children

FATHER OF MY CHILDREN (LE PERE DE MES ENFANTS): Starring Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Chiara Caselli, Alice de Lencquesaing and Alice Gautier. Directed by Mia Hansen-Love. Rated M (mature themes). 106 minutes.

THIS is an impressive film from a director still in her 20s - a film about family and relationships but also a film about the film industry.

The first part focuses on Gregoire (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), a very busy producer.

In fact, the first 10 minutes show him making phone call after phone call on his mobile phone, as he leaves the building, walks along the street, finds his car, drives (speedily and without seat belt), the camera tracking him. (Perhaps this is a record for showing mobile phone use in cinema - an opening that would have been impossible 20 years earlier.)

He does get pulled up by the police!

At his country home, he has a loving wife, Sylvia (Chiara Caselli), and three daughters, the younger two devoted to their father, the young teenager (de Lenquesaing's daughter, Alicia) moody and reclusive.

There are some exuberant family sequences, but the phone is never far away.

When tragedy strikes the family, the film moves attention to the wife and her skills in handling the crisis in the film company.

She shows a great deal of courage and energy trying to save the business side of the company.

The last part of the film shifts to Clemence, the older daughter, and how she handles the situation and her feelings - and the possibility that she will move into the film industry.

In her early career, the director was helped by Humbert Balsan, an energetic producer who, with extreme good will towards film-makers, especially from countries whose industries were developing, over-extended himself and took his own life in 2005.

The film serves as a tribute to him, an acknowledgement of gratitude and an insight into the pressures of the film business, the continual need for money and trying to deal delicately and diplomatically with the moods and performances in real life but artistic types.

This makes for an interesting and satisfying film.