QUARTIER LONTAIN/ DISTANT NEIGHBOURHOOD
France, 2010, 98 minutes, Colour.
Pascal Greggory, Jonathan Zaccai, Alexandra Maria Lara, Leo Legrand, Laura Moisson.
Directed by Sam Garbarski.
Although this is a film about sadness in the family and its effect on the different members, the treatment is rather gentle.
The title refers to a town on where the central character, Thomas, Pascal Greggory, grew up. As the film opens, he is in middle age, a successful cartoonist though with something of a writer’s block. On his way to a convention, he takes the wrong train and alights at his home town, meeting old friend who stayed in his family business, going to look at his old house, going to see his mother’s grave at the cemetery where he has a fall and there is a flashback which takes up most of the action of the film.
Thomas returns to age 14, reliving his past yet knowing what was to come. We see the details of life in the house, his room, relationship with his sister, his father workjng in the shop, his mother keeping house. We see him at school, with his friends and their activities, meeting an attractive girl who serves as something of an inspiration.
Thomas knows that his father will leave the family at a birthday celebration and Thomas is anxious that this will not happen. As the family has the birthday cake, the father decides to go to a shop, Thomas following him, finding him at the station, getting on a train to Paris and leaving their lives. Thomas is unable to stop him.
When Thomas returns to the present, he finds himself in the cemetery but there is a value, even the sadness, in re-living this important part of his life.
1. The title? The town of Thomas’ younger days? In his memory? In his reliving the past?
2. The present, home, the train ride, the mistake? The town, the station, the streets and shops, the cemetery? The past? The same town, the same locales? The home, school? The railway station? The musical score?
3. The picture of a family, a family broken? The repercussions for children into adulthood?
4. The focus on Thomas, his work as a cartoonist, his relationship with his wife, going to the convention, his comics, his heroine? His being asked about his work by the fan?
5. Travel, the train, making a mistake, getting off at his home town? The effect of meeting his friend after 20 years, talking, hearing about the house, going to see it? Going to the cemetery, his fall? The flashback?
6. Thomas and his waking up aged 14? His knowing what was to come? His re-living the events day by day? His relationship with his father, knowing that his father was to leave? Trying to bond with him? Knowing that he would leave on his birthday? The birthday having passed? But the difficulty and its not being celebrated? Thomas and his anticipation of the celebration?
7. Thomas and his mother, as a person, loving, day by day life, love for her husband? Thomas knowing what was to come, her not being able to manage the shop, the sadness of her life? His relationship with his sister?
8. Thomas and his friend, comradeship, school, sharing activities? The meeting with Sylvie? The attraction? Her being an inspiration to him?
9. The building up to this birthday celebration, following his father to the station, unable to persuade him to stay? The father’s reasons, going? Thomas communicating this to his mother?
10. Waking at her grave? The experience of going back into the past? Helping him taught his future?
