OIFF Film Review:  Le Fils de Joseph

— by Paula Treneer —

One of my personal favorites shown at the 2016 Orcas Film Festival was “Le Fils de Joseph”, a French film directed by Eugène Green in collaboration with the Dardenne brothers, whose films have graced OIFF in the past. Structured around Christian cultural references, the plot is relatively straightforward but the film’s dramatization, mise-en-scène, writing, cinematography, and accompanying music provide an elaborate frame.

Marie (Natacha Regnier) has kept her son (Victor Ezenfis) Vincent’s paternity a secret for his entire youth, but the angry adolescent manages to unearth his father’s identity. His father, played by Mathieu Amalric, acclaimed for his touching performance in “The Butterfly and the Diving Bell”, is a denizen of the French literary scene, a devoted careerist whose cynicism and selfishness inspire the youth to a vengeful stroke. Vincent’s schemes to encounter his father are played out in comic backdrops, such as the cocktail party where he is mistaken for an up and coming young author by critic Violette (played hilariously by Maria de Medeiros). Following surreptitious surveying of his father’s daily life, Vincent concocts his revenge, but in fleeing from its aftermath, encounters Joseph, played by Fabrizio Rongione, most recently acclaimed by French cineastes for his role as Marcel in “Un Village Français”. As he offers unsolicited advice to Vincent, Joseph steps into his life, soon providing a moral guide and role model for the troubled youth. Vincent is unaware that Joseph is his father’s estranged brother, as he grows closer to him and designs a romantic role for Joseph in his loving mother’s life, leading to a comic dénouement.

The opening scene of Parisian commuters lifts quotidian life into an artistic realm, accompanied by a baroque score I found somewhat intrusive, whose unusual mixture, while experienced on Sundays in Paris’ Place des Vosges, hints at the filmmaker’s formality. In successive vignettes the characters exemplify moral dichotomies (cynicism vs. fidelity, callousness vs. sincerity, morality vs. depredation, the list goes on). The contrapuntal musical score and French linguistic formality enhance the film’s comedy. The church scene’s delightful madrigal music, by the ensemble Le Poeme Harmonique, is particularly lovely. Viewers having some acquaintance with French will especially enjoy the film, since the English translation fails to capture linguistic nuances.

The Brooklyn-born French director, playwright and writer’s background in 17th century Baroque theater is not far from the surface in this enchanting film. The Orcas Film Festival provides viewings of exceptional films which local cineastes would not find on the mainland theaters outside of SIFF. A warm thank-you is due OIFF and film sponsors John Bric and Allison Weir.