Plus qu’hier, moins que demain

The family that is the subject of Laurent Achard’s film is a fairly melodramatic one. Father is a drunkard, mother a strong, determined and vigorous woman. The restless teenage daughter Françoise loves her cousin Bernard – a good excuse to stay with her parents and her little brother Julien, while dreaming of a future with more music, a destination that matches her sixteen years and her teenage idols. In the garden shed lives a sexy Arab who does odd jobs in the house. Then the pretty messed-up elder sister Sonia comes home after a long stay away and rakes up all the details of the troubled family history.Achard tells this story in a controlled visual style that may know lyrical moments, but across the board he keeps the melodramatic elements of the story under control with detachedcamera-work, helped by the excellent portrayal of the off-beat characters. With Plus qu’hier, moins que demain Achard continues his reflections on the family from his short films: how can we link our own future with those of our nearest and dearest in order to create a shared history or to become what we are deep inside without betraying ‘our own’.