THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE (LE PREMIER JOUR DU RESTE DE TA VIE)

France, 2008, 114 minutes, Colour.
Jacques Gamblin, Zabou Brietman, Deborah Francois, Marc- Andre Grondin, Pio Marmai.
Directed by Remi Bezancon.

This is the kind of story the French do so well, a focus on a family, their interactions, their crises. It is different in its screenplay and in its structure. It takes place over five days, but not consecutive days. Rather, the days are significant over a period of twelve years, each one focussing particularly on the father, the mother, the older son, the younger son, the daughter. This leads to the cumulative effect of getting to know each character very well.

Once the audience is on the wavelength of what is happening in the storytelling, the insights of the writing, the warmth of the family bonds (despite lots of disagreements) and the fine performances, the film becomes quite a moving, sometimes endearing experience.

The father is a taxi driver, a good man with limitations who, sometimes, does not understand his wife and children at all. The wife is loving but, as the years pass, feels that she is ageing and losing her beauty and is not appreciated. The older son is a surgeon who moves out of the family home at the beginning and who lives a professionally successful career but a somewhat morose personal life. The younger son is the eternal procrastinator who does find a goal in life through his wife connoisseur grandfather. The daughter is young, rebellious as she becomes a teen, falls into all the traps that this kind of girl could but, eventually, after fights, she makes good.

The film was popular in France and won three Cesar awards, including most promising actress for Deborah Francois as the daughter and Marc- Andre Grondin as the younger son. The film travels well outside France.

1.The story of a family, a portrait of a family, the whole family, the individuals? The period range? Development, faults and qualities? The value of family?

2.The French style, situations, sensibility? The characters and style?

3.The structure of the film: the framework of the home movies, the credits, the ending? Characters, their life, pregnancy and children, parenting, play and joy?

4.The structure: five days over twelve years, one day for each of the principal characters? The visual style as different for each character, time? Different styles of editing?

5.The focus on each of the characters and their relationship with each other? Time, age, the events, birthdays, weddings, deaths?

6.Albert, the empty chair, 24th of August, 1988: Albert, twenty, becoming independent, his mother’s reaction, the tiny apartment, the relationship with his grandfather? His meeting the young woman? His life, his brother, his sister? Albert as the oldest, the family’s ambitions? His studies? Strength of character? His relationship, his wife? The Magnificent Seven poster in his room?

7.Fleur, Friday the 3rd of December, 1993, Fleur’s sixteenth birthday, five years having passed? Her attitude towards sexuality, her attitude towards her mother and insulting her, the clash? The teenager of the 1990s, grunge? Fleur and disenchantment?

8.Raphael, Saturday the 22nd of June, 1996, Raphael at twenty-five, visiting his grandfather, the art of wine tasting, his confiding in his grandfather, the grandfather talking about his wife, her young death, the grandchildren not knowing her? Raphael and his remembering about Moira? Raphael and procrastination? His blithe attitude towards life, drifting through life? Dreams and reality? In love with the girl he met briefly? Trying to remember her phone number? Guitar competitions? Air guitar? His being the object onto whom the rest of the family imputed their feelings?

9.Marie- Jeanne, Friday the 25th of September, 1988, Marie-Jeanne? as wife, the temptation, the flirting? Her attitude towards her youth, comparisons with her daughter? The independence? The extraordinary day for Marie- Jeanne? Relationships, trust with her husband, her trying to hold onto her youth?

10.Robert, Friday the 26th of May, 2000, Robert at the end of his life, his role as a husband, his role as a father? Still clinging to youth, the teenager, jeans, shoes? Music? But a taxi driver for so long? His relationship with his older son, finding him as a passenger? The drama in the car? Robert, his world, his memories, satisfaction, his death?

11.Robert, his age, the flat, talking, putting Albert down, praising Raphael? The wines and Raphael and his attitude? Talk about resistance, his wife, the cellar, his taste? His death?

12.Fleur and Claire, the chatter, the class, the sexual encounter? The relationship with Sasha? With Eric? Together, the ups and downs, her pregnancy and Eric?

13.Sasha, his band, friends, sexual activity, the month, the scarf, Albert and fear?

14.Pierre, the noise, talk, marrying, wedding – and the apocalyptic?

15.The driving instructor, Robert, Marie- Jeanne, Robert and his discovery, the kiss? Action?

16.The seventy-year-old dog, the surgery?

17.Glimpsing the ups and downs of the characters, their faults, their strengths, the search for Fleur? Together, the reconciliation, the focus, the holiday, the home movies?

18.Humour, pathos, foibles, hopes, children and having children – and letting them grow up?