Eric Lartigau’s The Bélier Family is a heart-felt tearjerker and incredible entrance into film for one young actress and singer.
The Béliers are a salt-of-the-Earth farming family, full of love and loyalty for each other. The fact that every member of the family except young Paula (Louane Emera) is deaf seems to only strengthen their bond. But life begins to get complicated when Paula finds her voice in choir class and is invited to study singing in Paris.
The family dynamic in this film is beautifully presented and charming almost to a fault. Every Bélier is optimistic, light-hearted, but also fiercely proud of their rural lifestyle. The father, Rodolpho (François Damiens), is an endearingly rugged bloke with a cheeky sense of humour. Mother Gigi (Karin Viard) is an embarrassingly bubbly and doting mum and brother Quentin (Luca Gelberg) fills out some of the missing piece of this familial puzzle by being your classic stereotypical pubescent boy (though with a heart as big as the other members of his family).
Every member of this stellar ensemble is as real as any person you’d find on the street. At times their characters border on the cliché but their acting is full of subtle nuances that come off as completely natural.
Emera is definitely the finest example of this, which makes sense, seeing as she is a relatively new player on the big screen. The “realness” has definitely not been trained out of her yet, which is a really endearing trait for any actor. Emera is a fantastic and powerful vocalist too. I feel like the hardest part of performing in this film for her would have been pretending that she didn’t have such a skill in the early scenes.
The Bélier Family features some gorgeous locales and scenery. The rural France depicted by this film is almost magical, whether it be pouring with rain or shining outside. In fact, the whole film is similarly pleasant, innocent and unspoiled in a way. It’s very refreshing to sit through a film full of such positivity.
I will admit that the portrayal of deafness in this film is a little glossy and romanticised. It is nice to see a largely positive treatment of a disability in film, though I have noted some criticism about the portrayal of these characters. I suppose it is up to each viewer to judge for themselves whether this subject is handled with enough grace and empathy.
Of course, as a teenage coming of age story and feel-good-family-flick, there are points when The Bélier Family come off as pretty formulaic. I’m almost ashamed to say I always end up falling for these sappy endings, even if I can see them coming from a mile away. Though for what it’s worth, this movie does pull of its tear-jerking finale well.
The Bélier Family screens again on 14 and 21 March 2015 as part of the Alliance Française Film Festival.
Reviewed by James Rudd
Twitter: @james_wrr
Rating out of 10: 7
The Alliance Française French Film Festival runs from 5 – 24 March 2015 exclusively at the Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas.
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