Comment j’ai tué mon père

Anne Fontaine has constructed a gripping and moving story about an existential issue: the value of the family bond. JeanLuc has made it in life. He is married to a beautiful young woman and, as a gerontologist, he is owner of a private clinic specialised in antiageing. When he is honoured by the local establishment for his work, he gives a garden party. At that moment, his father Maurice suddenly turns up: he is also a doctor, who had moved to Africa years before for no apparent reason. The father accepts the lukewarm offer of his son to stay for a few days and he observes the household with phlegmatic objectivity and a mysterious smile around his lips which promises no good. The arrival of the ‘lost father’, who seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth, disrupts the microcosm of the family. JeanLuc does not know what to do with his forgotten resentment, but his wife becomes fond of the unconventional man and JeanLuc’s younger brother, who can’t even remember his father, also makes overtures.Comment j’ai tué mon père is a subtle psychological drama, that excels with its meticulous miseenscène, elegant construction and cool, subdued acting by the wonderful cast, in which the great French actor Michel Bouquet (who played in many films by Truffaut and Chabrol in the seventies) can be seen again.