• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Film

La Famille Bélier : Film Review

By Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada Paula Bélier is the 17-old-daughter of a cheese farming family in rural France. Early in the morning, she and her younger brother help on the farm, before she cycles to the village to get on the bus that takes her to school in the nearest town. On the bus, she handles […]

Leslie Byron Pitt by Leslie Byron Pitt
2015-09-02 17:41
in Film, Film Reviews, New Movies
The London Economic

The London Economic

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

By Miranda Schiller @mirandadadada

Paula Bélier is the 17-old-daughter of a cheese farming family in rural France. Early in the morning, she and her younger brother help on the farm, before she cycles to the village to get on the bus that takes her to school in the nearest town. On the bus, she handles all of her family’s business phone calls: She is the only hearing person in her family. Both her parents and her brother are deaf.

 

Her parents are also very sexually liberated, much to Paula’s embarrassment, who is awkward and unpopular at school. She shyly follows her secret crush into the school choir, where the teacher discovers her hidden singing talent. (Fabulously portrayed by Éric Elmosnino: a fallen star of the French chanson scene who asks himself daily how he ended up leading a provincial school choir). Of all people, Paula’s crush is set to be her duet partner – which leads to a horrible situation involving a first period and an embarrassingly unashamed mother.

 

So far, so standard teenage film fun. But La Famille Bélier takes the crazy-parents-trope up a notch. Paula’s father, in a bout of rage against the town mayor and the dilapidation of the former farming community, decides to run for mayor himself, with the support of his family. This results in a few photoshoots, town hall meetings, and a TV interview with a sulking Paula badly translating her dad’s inspired replies. However, this storyline sort of just disappears halfway through the film and we never find out what happened to his candidature. It seems like the filmmakers tried very hard to flesh the parent characters out so as to not run the danger of their only personality trait being “deaf”, but then didn’t quite manage to unite the three different storylines. There’s the dad’s election campaign, the teenage romance, and the singing, which completely takes over.

 

For obvious reasons, Paula’s parents can’t relate to her singing. So, for her big moment, the sound is faded out and we can experience what it must be like for her parents to see their daughter on a stage, in a pretty dress, with a boy, standing still, but somehow moving audience members all around them to tears. Don’t worry about missing out though, there are plenty of highly emotional singing moments to come so the cinema audience can be moved to tears too. This film is absolutely aimed at a hearing audience.

 

RelatedPosts

Give Them Wings Premiers in Darlington

Final Thoughts on Cannes 2022

Cannes 2022 Review: Tori and Lokita

Cannes 2022 Review: Pacifiction

Which is why it has been criticised in the deaf community: The deaf characters are all played by hearing actors with imperfect sign language skills. The deafness does feel more like a trope than anything else (the well-known “my parents don’t understand what I want to do” can’t really get any more extreme than this), but at least, both parents have full characters and personal traits that are unrelated to their deafness.

 

The main reason to watch La Famille Bélier is the lead actress Louane Emera though. Her singing is as natural and beautiful as her acting, constantly balancing her shy and her powerful sides, and not quite knowing how to express this raw energy forcing its way out through her voice.

A moving and solid debut for a young talent who we’ll hopefully see and hear more of.

La Famille Bélier is in cinemas September 11th.

Content Protection by DMCA.com

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Driver condemned for ‘mindless parking’ in front of fire station doors

Labour tells Sunak: ‘Stop hiding from Greensill questions’

Lockdown: Starmer labels anonymous Covid briefings a ‘gross irresponsibility’ as Northern leaders ‘not consulted’

Use this Groundbreaking Technology for a Bright Financial Future!

Tony Blair’s sister-in-law takes aim at New Labour in Edinburgh Fringe play

Spanish lorry drivers step in to supply to UK shops in unseen workload hike

Difficult week ends with a boost in the polls for the Tories

Alex Lodge: Weekly Report Vol. 49

Man got drunk on mouthwash before smashing up 12 luxury cars worth £500,000

Sunak planning £20 billion tax hike to pay coronavirus costs

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.