Tu seras mon fils (2011)
Directed by Gilles Legrand

Film Review

Whether by accident or design, director Gilles Legrand's third feature manages to be the complete antithesis of his first two films, family-friendly fare that would offend no one except those with an aversion to homespun sentimentality.  The only things that connect Malabar Princess (2004) and La Jeune fille et les loups (2007) with Legrand's latest film are its picturesque rural setting and a slightly too self-conscious attempt to play the auteur card.  Tu seras mon fils depicts a family tragedy of the bitterest and most brutal kind, in which a father grows to hate his own son so much that he ends up disowning him and trying to adopt the grown-up son of his estate manager.  It is as if Legrand has entirely used up his stock of sentimentality and compassion on his first two films, leaving his third cinematic offering unremittingly cruel and repellent.

Tu seras mon fils is more competently executed than Legrand's previous films but it shares the same failings, a lack of character depth and an over-reliance on clichés.  There are some plus points, however, and these make the film a far more appealing proposition.   Yves Angelo's photography of the sun-drenched rural setting, the Saint Emilion wine-growing district of the Gironde, is stunning and has the effect of heightening the obscene ugliness of the father-son relationship that is central to the drama.  The performances are, without exception, of the highest calibre, with notable contributions from Niels Arestrup and Patrick Chesnais, two of the most accomplished actors working in France today. 

The problem is that, by drawing his characters so simplistically, with few shades of grey, Legrand makes it incredibly hard for his audience to engage with them.  The father (Arestrup) is a monstrous bully and nothing else; his son (an excellent Lorànt Deutsch) is a useless spare part and habitual whipping boy; his best friend (Chesnais at his best) is the principled good guy who is bound to take a moral stand against a perceived evil (hence the 'shock' denouement comes as no surprise at all).  The characters are not real - they are archetypes, and it is only the quality of the performances that prevents this from being immediately obvious. 

Whilst Tu seras mon fils falls way short of being a great film Legrand deserves some credit for venturing into fairly uncharted territory, and doing so without the slightest concession to his audience's expectations.  It is hard to think of a film made within the last twenty years which depicts such an unflinchingly venomous relationship between a father and his son.  It has become a truism that parents and children love one another, but the reality is very different.  Legrand's film may have its flaws but it explodes a myth that has become so endemic that we fail to recognise it as such.  Parents and their offspring are as capable of hating one another as any other two randomly selected sets of individuals.  If Tu seras mon fils leaves you feeling nauseous and disgusted it is because it dares to challenge one of the perceived wisdoms of our time.

Film Synopsis

Winegrowing is a serious business, the distillation of centuries of experience into the hands of a few dedicated individuals for whom the production of wine is as much an art as a commercial venture.  Paul de Marseul is one such individual.  The owner of a leading vineyard in Saint-Emilion, a region renowned for wine production, he is proud to carry on the traditions of his forefathers and hopes that one day he will pass his business onto someone who is equally committed to the manufacture of fine wine.  That someone is most likely to be his son Martin, and he shudders at the prospect.  Despite Paul's determined efforts to transmit his knowledge and his enthusiasm to his son, Martin patently has no natural talent as a winegrower.

The boy does his best.  He does all that is required of him.  But he is not a natural viticulturist.  He has no flair, no passion for the business - unlike Philippe, the son of Paul's estate manager François.  When the latter is forced into retirement after being diagnosed with cancer, it is Philippe, not Martin, that Paul intends hiring as his replacement.  Philippe has already proven himself by successfully managing a vineyard in California, and he has all the qualities that Martin so evidently lacks.  So, when Philippe returns to France Paul offers him his father's position on his vineyard and soon comes to regard him as a replacement son for the one who is clearly of no use to him.  François and Martin are equally shocked by the revelation that Paul intends to adopt Philippe as his son...