Going Away

Guy travels around France being a substitute teacher. One day a kid in his class doesn't get picked up after school for a long weekend. He drives the kid to its dad's. One thing leads to another and the teacher takes the kid for the weekend but winds up at the kid's mother's house who works as a temp waitress on the beach at a beach resort.What did I personally get out of this? France's famous beaches are just like ours--tourists show up and so do the temp workers with good weather. Not so glamorous but nothing really is. Also there has been this push in American society for people with mental and emotional disorders to be treated just like every one else. Sounds good on paper. But then in reality it is just a disaster. These two people just drift around because they have similar issues. Sad. But says a lot about their behavior and the results on people around them. And just think ... not everyone knows the medical reasons behind their behavior. They just have to move on thinking about and wondering about what a horrible encounter they had. Reminds me of an a girl I went to school with. She was a terror. Found out after I graduated she was seeing a psychiatrist all those years as she had very bad mental/emotional issues. Not a good situation to put another sane kid in . . . to be around such people. Seems tilted to the sick person's favor. Anyway the actress in this movie shows promise. She was in the Brosnan comedy movie a year or two ago as the spoiled air head bride. Love seeing the male Frenchman who looks very classically European and not the middle Eastern look that most Frenchmen have lately.

The movie showed one of the main reasons for not getting involved with people who "want to have fun" proceeding to promote poisoning with the brain and liver lethal toxic chemical All Co Hell which the male lead absurdly consumed and promptly demonstrated severe All Co Hell allergies. Contrary to felony religionist preachings that money is the root of all evil (unless their criminal gangs possess it which in fact is the one clear demonstration of the point) and related fraud and thief efforts to "steal candy from a baby" and anyone else who has anything of value (whether financial or beauty), it is known NOT to burn any holes in pockets that have any (all of which are burned by external frauds and thieves not by the money itself). There is no sense in which having money in his own pocket or within arm's reach would interfere with the male lead's teaching or anything else he might want to be doing with his life. The male lead's refusal to accept the positives that the universe provided for him, except when needed by the female lead, showed probable cause for the earlier "commitment". However, as a case study in silliness and questionable motivations, the story was well written, mostly well photographed but for a few unduly dark segments, and well produced. Worthy of a four star rating on grounds of quality silliness.

Baptiste, an intelligent compassionate (it doesn't hurt that he's exceedingly good looking) substitute teacher makes certain that he doesn't stay too long in any job or place. We don't know why. He intervenes, minimally to start, in the life of his young student Mathias, who's father has forgotten him at school. Baptiste develops more than an affinity for Sandra, Mathias's mom, who is aggressively pursued by loan sharks. To tell more detail would spoil. A key theme: Who is the arbiter of success? By what criterion do we measure it-- money, social status, the highest levels of academic achievement, integrity, compassion, loving relationships, forging a good enough life while managing difficult impairments? And surely I'm not the first to notice that this itinerant teacher bears the name of another itinerant, in that case, preacher, suggesting that this modern Baptiste has some wisdom to impart. The directing by Nicole Garcia is solid, as is the acting by Pierre Rochefort, Louise Bourgoin, and Mathias Brezot. Good job all around. Well worth a viewing or 2.

Excellent, emotionally charged drama, beautifully photographed with naturalistic tones, and directed, and showcasing some very fine acting work: i found Louise Bourgoin exceptionally beautiful and affecting in her role, and Pierre Rochefort , the son of the director and of great French actor, Jean Rochefort, a very talented and truly handsome young actor, i hope to see more often in films as he makes for the perfect romantic lead. A great surprise was to see iconic star Dominique Sanda finally back to work after quite a long time, i believe, perfectly cast in the key supporting role of the sensitive yet ambiguous wealthy mother of the troubled lead, delivering a great performance and completely engrossing the screen with her presence, and, even though definitely aged, still perfectly luminous, and clearly a natural.The movie is not as well known as it should be, and, that's too bad. I had to buy the Pal version, since there's no American distribution (a shame) and fortunately i have both systems DVD players. A real delight, from beginning to end, unfolding a bit like a mystery, but it is an insightful psychological drama, that argues family's values,and recent European society as well, it turns out to be haunting and extremely sweet, shot also on gorgeous different locations in the South of France (mostly). Highly recommended, and, hopefully, one fine day, available also in the States, who knows?

Baptiste (Pierre Rochefort) is a primary school teacher who has a way to bring out the best in his pupils. He acts as a supply teacher and never stays in one place too long - even when a permanent position comes up. Then one day after school one of his pupils, Mathias, is not collected by his father. Baptiste takes him home but ends up taking the boy to his mothers.She is Sandra (Louise Bourgoin) and works at a beach front restaurant for her step dad and is a woman with a past. She has an almost immediate effect on Baptiste and soon he is involved with the skeletons in her closet and that forces him to confront his own.This is essentially a love story with quite a bit thrown in. The film has a pace that balances the immediacy of certain situations with the need to let things just unfold. Everyone puts in a good performance and the camera work is subtle in how it covers the beautiful scenery and the mundane everydayness that come with life. This is a film that seems to have undersold itself in the synopsis and I found there was so much more here than I was even half expecting. The original title was `Un beau dimanche' and I think I prefer that; either way this is a surprising and interesting film that I can recommend to lovers of European cinema.

Had seen it before on Prime video. Good to have own copy of one of my favourite French films.