Family First – Chien de garde
Between puppy and wolf
Film. At the Saint-Jean-de-Luz International Film Festival, Sophie Dupuis received the Best Director award for Family first while their actors Jean-Simon Leduc and Théodore Pellerin receiving the Best Actor award. Presentation.
By Franck Lebraly
Sophie Dupuis releases the pack ! With this second feature she shows us the story of two brothers lost in Verdun. Not the great battle of the First World War, but the Montreal district. They collect money from local bars and restaurants on behalf of their uncle, a small local godfather (story that resonates with that of Boys cry an Italian movie that also comes out this week).
“Dupuis has this inimitable style that comes from Montreal. Neither really French, nor totally American, a singular cinema, without half-measure.
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The family climate is the source of their ills : the uncle, mafiosi plays an unhealthy game, the mother, unable to manage the education of the youngest, plunges into drinking.
Close-ups, tight shots, shaky camera on board… Everything evokes films like American Honey; We, the coyotes or Sollers Point. Sophie Dupuis respects the codes of the genre – a little too much sometimes. It is an immersion in the heart of a closed family where the tension is palpable… Permanent when the Vincent, the youngest of the two brothers, rode in the room. Bipolar, uncontrollable, he is the brilliant real pain of the film. Incarnated by Théodore Pellerin, seen in Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World, the mischievous young man, to whom one would put on a muzzle, is hatched by his big brother who is reasonable and benevolent
The guard dog of the original title (Chien de garde) camped by Jean Simon Leduc, quiet strength of the film who knows that only the departure of the family home could be his salvation. We often think of Mommy, the masterpiece of Xavier Dolan. Dupuis has this inimitable style that comes from Montreal. Neither really French, nor totally American, a singular cinema, without half-measure.
