Father of my children by Mia Hansen-Love - Movie review

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Father of my children film review - Mia Hansen-Love creates tangible realism with sublime touches of wonder

Mia Hansen-Loves's Father of my children film poster

I heard about Father of my children (Le père de mes enfants) from the Curzon cinema’s mailing list and from the moment I started to watch the trailer (and quickly turned it off again, so as not to spoil it) I knew that I’d love it. Mia Hansen-Love’s second film is a creative homage to the life of Humbert Balsan, the French film producer, but putting that aside it is an unexpected chunk of brilliance all by itself.

The story follows Grégoire Canval, a film producer with a beautiful wife and children. Scenes of family bliss consume the beginnings of the film, but financial difficulties at Moon Pictures threaten the harmony with increasing ferocity.

In this world of prisoners, few of us are slaves to something that we love, but for those that are, to face losing it must be a terrible thing.

In an interview after the preview screening, Mia Hansen-Love said that the film focused on a heavy sense of realism, but was punctuated at times with her own poetic interpretation of life. It blends a mix of both a joueur de vivre and real life triste with “inner light” shining through.

She also said that the, “children in the film were not given a script and had never acted before. This gave them an innocence that added to every scene. While they knew the overall story, they only acted on directions given at the scene. There were many takes, but the guided improvisation created a lot of character and new ideas for the film.”

Father of my children is an emotional journey of love, passion and loss. Beautifully shot and wonderfully cast, it is as close to perfection as it could get.

4.7/5