You Will Be My Son (2011)

Crappy film

The acting in this movie is really good.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Getting the internet back on at home after 2 days of the server crashing,I decided to take a look at the movies listed on BBC iPlayer.Getting near the end of the list,I noticed a splendid looking,dark French Drama,which led to me getting ready to find out what vintage the film is.The plot:After running the family vineyard for decades, Paul de Marseul starts to become aware that some point soon he will have to pass the Marseul legacy over to the next generation:his son Martin.Whilst past generations have made the transitions go smoothly,Paul is only able to look at Martin with pure hatred,as Paul treats his son to constant bullying,which includes blaming him for the death of their wife/mum,and Martin being unable to get his girlfriend pregnant. Learning that his dad (and friend of Martin) François Amelot is struggling in his battle with cancer, Philippe Amelot decides to go and support his dad.Meeting Philippe,Paul is thrilled to find that Philippe has all the qualities Martin lacks.Suspecting that François is near death (what a friend!) Paul starts making plans to hang a new son on the vineyards.View on the film:Sweeping over the vineyards,co-writer/(along with Laure Gasparotto & Delphine de Vigan) director Gilles Legrand and cinematographer Yves Angelo unwrap the darkness decaying the heart of the Marseul family.Taking inspiration from Film Noir sheen, Legrand and Angelo paint the wine in a golden ruby,which masks the rot setting in at the centre,which Legrand superbly unveils by transforming the Marseul's wine vault into a Gothic Horror crypt,where the bitter anger consuming Paul is allowed to ferment.While the way Paul treats Martin is extremely harsh,the screenplay by Legrand/ Gasparotto and Vigan make each sharp line of dialogue land with a real punch,due to the writers cleverly using Paul's viciousness to place him in a deadly corner. Giving Paul a "warm uncle" shine,the writers wonderfully send Paul down an unforgiving Film Noir loner path lit up by Paul isolating himself by hurling snarling swipes at all who stand in his way,until Paul is left as a monster in his self-imposed den.Soaked in buckets of misery, Lorànt Deutsch gives a thrilling performance as Martin,whose bruised knuckles Deutsch digs deep into,whilst dapper Nicolas Bridet makes Philippe look like he is walking on water with his savvy charms.Stomping down on the grapes, Niels Arestrup gives a thunderous performance as Paul,thanks to Arestrup joyfully burning Paul's cuddly side and digging up the pure Film Noir cruelty,in a movie which should be watched through the grapevines.

French screenwriter, producer and director Gilles Legrand's third feature film which he co-produced and co-wrote with French screenwriter and director Delphine de Vigan, premiered in France, was shot on locations in France and is a French production which was produced by producer Frédéric Brillion. It tells the story about a middle-aged Roman Catholic monarchist named Paul de Marseul who lives on a grand estate in Les Etourneaux in Nice, France where he runs a vineyard. When Paul's long-time collaborator named Francois Amelot learns that he is dying from cancer, Paul's son named Martin who works for him and lives on his estate with his wife named Alice makes himself available to take over Francois' position, but Paul doesn't regard his son that highly and is more concerned with Martin giving him a grandson. Distinctly and precisely directed by French filmmaker Gilles Legrand, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the two main characters' viewpoints, draws an increasingly dramatic portrayal of a seasoned wine maker who was sent away from home as a nine-year-old in the early 1950s to attend a Jesuit boarding school and who was noticed for the first time and trained by his father as a 17-year-old, and his relationship with his only child whom he thinks has a personality which is more compatible to that of his mother than to his. While notable for its distinct, atmospheric and naturalistic milieu depictions, masterful cinematography by French cinematographer and director Yves Angelo, reverent production design by production designer Aline Bonetto, costume design by costume designer Tess Hammami, film editing by film editor Andréa Sedlackova and use of sound, colors and light, this dialog-driven and narrative-driven story about a father's resentment towards his own flesh and blood whom he likes to dictate and taunt, depicts two conflicting and heartrending studies of character and contains a timely and prominent score by composer Armand Amar.This elegiacally atmospheric, sarcastically humorous and densely generational character piece which is set during a summer in France in the 21st century and where a French man named Philippe whom has been living in Chile for the last three years arrives at the Marseul family estate without any other reasons for his visit than to meet his father, and is embraced by his fathers' friend and associate, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, rhythmic continuity, unsentimental dialog, indifferently claiming and disowning comment by Paul : "I'm your father, aren't I", the majestic acting performance by French actor Niels Arestrup and the involving acting performances by French actors Lorànt Deutsch, Nicolas Bridet, Patrick Chesnais and French actress Anne Marivin. An eloquently psychological, commandingly cinematographic and revering narrative feature.

The lead is a distinctive actor with all the subtlety of the script in this role. The poor beleaguered son is so unsure of his place in the world that his masochism in remaining in his father's universe is barely believable...though his behavior begs for more beatings of a psychological kind. The loyal wife of the junior loves him for reasons unknown to the viewer; under the sheets, perhaps? The once (1960-70) disco scene is resurrected here to hardly any purpose. The manager of the vineyard, dying of cancer, gets the best draw of script which he fulfills with professionalism and dignity, and his practical and loyal wife plays her role beautifully. As to the prodigal would be son, an insensitive cad and gainer well played here. The logic of the script is minimal and the resolution more abrupt and fevered than what precedes it logically allows. Beautiful shots of the vineyard. All in all, this vintage is pas mal but no chapeau.

Gilles Legrand delivers with Tu Seras Mon Fils a poignant drama carried an excellent duo of actors whose performances are oozing accuracy, the always masterful Niels Arestrup, frightening as an authoritarian and despising patriarch, and Lorànt Deutsch, touching as a constantly demeaned son.The viewer ends up completely carried away by this polished familial tragedy where the implacable unfolding of the plot and the striking dialogues totally captivate from end to end. However, certain motivations are a bit hard to assimilate and the purpose of the opening scene is questionable because it incomprehensibly reveals the twist of the movie, which by the way could be regarded as a bit sloppy.All in all, Tu Seras Mon Fils overall is solid and deserves more consideration than the press critics tried to convince us.