L'Arbre de Noël (1969)
Directed by Terence Young

Film Review

L'Arbre de Noël (a.k.a. The Christmas Tree) is a deceptively simple film that deals sensitively with one of the most difficult subjects of all - how to face up to one's own mortality and the mortality of those nearest to us.  A thoughtful adaptation of Michel Bataille's popular novel of the same title, it is a film which is suitable for both adults and children, handling its brutal subject matter with surprising finesse and maturity.  When the film was first released, critics were quick to pick up on the obvious flaws in both the writing and the direction, with the result that the film has languished in comparative obscurity for many years and still remains an overlooked classic.  L'Arbre de Noël is not the most polished of films, and it does occasionally get snared up on its unnecesary didacticism, but for all its faults it is an extremely poignant piece of drama and remains one of cinema's most stirring and accessible meditations on mortality.

The film was directed by Terence Young, the well-known British filmmaker whose previous mainstream successes included the first (and best) James Bond movies, Dr No (1962) and From Russia with Love (1963).   Young's flair for action set-pieces is apparent in the film's most dramatic sequence (in which the boy protagonist is attacked by a mad horse and saved by his precious wolves), but it is the quieter, more contemplative scenes that are the most effective and memorable.   The sequence in which the boy's father is forced to reveal his son's fate to his friend and then learns that his son knows he is going to die is the most touching in the film, particularly as it is played with an almost brutal restraint.  There are one or two scenes where the emotionality is perhaps nudged a little too far, but overall Young manages to avoid the kind of gratuitous heartstring tugging that is prevalent in comparable Hollywood tearjerkers.  Where the film does get lachrymose, it does so with sufficient force to make even the most stonyhearted cynic shed a tear or two.  It's not advisable to watch this film unless you have a box of Kleenex within easy reach.

For lead actor William Holden, L'Arbre de Noël - along with Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, released a few months previously - represented a significant return to from, after a period of some years in which he was reduced to playing minor parts.  Holden is as perfect in this film as he is in Peckinpah's, and his portrayal of a father coming to terms with the fact that his son has just a few months left to live should be considered one of his finest.  Watching a persona as tough as Holden's crack in the face of personal tragedy is indeed a harrowing sight to behold.   In one of his last screen roles, the popular comic actor Bourvil also turns in a fine dramatic performance, one that is subtly moving and humorous, an effective counterpoint to Holden's darkly introspective portrayal.   It is worth noting that before he made the film, Bourvil had been diagnosed with Kahler's disease, a bone-wasting cancer that would claim his life within a year of the film's release. 

As great as Holden and Bourvil are in this film, each powerfully evoking the bitter poignancy of his character's predicament, it is ten-year-old Brook Fuller who steals the film as the doomed infant Pascal.  What makes the film so devastatingly poignant is Pascal's quiet acceptance of his fate; he knows he is going to die and yet it appears not to spoil his enjoyment of the life that remains to him.  Fuller's performance is charming and authentic, untainted by the cocksure self-awareness that seems to afflict most child actors today.  Fuller conveys far more than he can possibly be conscious of and, more than anything, it is the spontaneity and mystique which he brings to the film that makes it so magical and so full of meaning.

A Franco-Italian production, the film exists into two versions which differ in a just a few scenes.  For the French version (L'Arbre de Noël), the American actors are dubbed, whilst in the English-language version (The Christmas Tree), Bourvil speaks his lines in English.  Both versions make effective use of Narciso Yepes' evocative guitar theme from René Clément's 1952 film Jeux interdits, an even more powerful depiction of children awakening to the curse of mortality.  We can forgive Terence Young for stealing Yepes' theme because it serves his film so perfectly and strikes just the right emotional chord at just the right moments.

L'Arbre de Noël touches on some themes that were highly topical when it was made (and which continue to be relevant to this day) - anxieties over the prevalence of atomic weaponry and whether scientific endeavour is more concerned with national prestige than in improving the lot of mankind.  The polemic over whether governments should be investing more taxpayers' money in medical research instead of prestige projects gained momentum in the late 1960s as billions were siphoned into the NASA moon-landing project, potentially setting back medical research by decades.   Should mankind's priority be to eradicate human suffering or to push back the frontiers of knowledge in more esoteric areas?  It is a moral dilemma that continues to strain the consciences of individuals and governments throughout the world.

Despite its bleak subject matter, L'Arbre de Noël is a film that is highly recommended for children, as few other films have dealt as eloquently and pointedly with the issue of mortality.  For adults, it is just as appealing, and surprisingly life-affirming.  The film does not dwell morbidly on the fate that awaits us all but serves as a cogent parable on the preciousness of life, reminding us that each moment should be lived to its fullest, whether we have just six months or sixty years head of us.   The film's ending is brutal and so heartrending that no one who watches it can avoid being moved to tears, but it compels us to reflect and cherish what we have, rather than lament what we must lose.  As far as Christmas films go, this one is hard to beat, cruel as it is.

Film Synopsis

As has become his custom after losing his mother, ten-year-old Pascal joins his father Laurent, a millionaire businessman, in Paris for the summer holidays.  This year, Pascal insists that they spend the summer together in Corsica, so having bid a hasty farewell to Laurent's girlfriend Catherine, they set out for the holiday of a lifetime.  It proves to be just that.  Whilst lounging about on their raft, father and son witness a strange sight in the sky above them.  A passing aircraft goes up in a ball of flame and a parachute laden with an ominous-looking missile falls into the sea nearby.  A few weeks later, Pascal begins to show signs of a mysterious illness.  His father takes him to a medical expert and has his worst fears confirmed.  Having been subjected to a blast of atomic radiation, Pascal has contracted leukaemia and has only six months to live, perhaps a little longer if he stays in hospital and subjects himself to extensive treatment.  Laurent makes up his mind to take Pascal to his country home and give him the best six months of life a boy can possibly have, with the help of his old army friend Verdun.  As his father spoils him with presents and other treats, Pascal begins to develop a deep fascination for wild wolves.  Knowing that nothing can make his son happier than owning a pet wolf, Laurent resolves to make this dream come true, even if he has to break into a zoo and steal the wolf himself...