This was the openingsfilm of the Ghent filmfestival 2012. Director Felix van Groeningen is born (1977) in the city of Ghent, and still lives there as far as I know (also has, see IMDb trivia, a heavy Ghentian local accent). Please do not construe this to be the sole reason for programming this film on the prestigious opening night, since he has an ample track record to warrant it.
The announcement text as published by the festival draws our special attention to the considerable portion of bluegrass music in the film. It made me hesitate a little when booking tickets, due to my association with country&western music that I don't like very much (maybe too "American life style" for me). But my prejudice proved very wrong, and the music score offered much more than I imagined. It is not a musical, however, where the music scenes carry the story line. Instead, the music appears on logical moments and does not come in the way of the drama.
An interview with the film director preceded the screening. Apart from the usual exchange of facts about how the film was made and how it relates to predecessors from the same director, I noted an important observation made by the interviewer (Patrick Duynslaegher, artistic director of the festival). He mentioned that the scene ordering was not the one he would have chosen. It proved to be a useful hint. If I had not known this before, I would have been left confused, and I certainly would have failed to appreciate the film. Now I satisfy myself with calling it "chronologically challenged", hopefully serving as a heads up for subsequent viewers. The only switch back in time shown explicitly is after the initial scene around the child's hospital bed. We see "7 years earlier" displayed announcing a backflash to the time before the parents were married. All later time switches back and forth (be prepared for many of those), have to be derived from the context. It needs some getting used to, but it works out very well, after all, to get the dramatic development across.
The bare story can be told in a few lines, but doesn't do the film justice. Two very different people get to know each other by chance, find a common ground in their love for bluegrass music, the woman gets pregnant unexpectedly, they get married, and raise the child that is born. The drama starts when the child has an incurable disease at the age of six, gets hospitalized for a long time, and undergoes some fruitless therapies. Finally, stem cell therapy seemed to offer the last straw, but after a hopeful start proved nevertheless too experimental to yield a positive end result.
Throughout the film we see significant events in the form of flashbacks. These events are taken from the healthy years of the child, and seem almost trivial at first. Two examples: the bird that flies against the veranda glass and dies, and the stories told about the many years that light from the stars is underway before it reaches earth. These are just examples, but have in common that they become more important later on, either as happy memories or as mishaps to hold against each other.
In the aftermath of their child's death we clearly see that they grow apart more and more. The only occasions where they still see each other, are the continued bluegrass concerts they give together with their band.
The very different reactions to their child's death is best illustrated by what follows after a TV speech by George W Bush, when he vetoes stem cell therapy research as against the will of God. In the middle of a concert, the man bursts out in a long speech. He states that stem cell therapy might have rescued their child when medical science had been given the chance for more field research, and not being hindered by people who put their beliefs above progress. She does not take it very well, retreats to the tattoo shop she owns (the place where they initially met, by the way), and she barricades herself. There is no spoiler danger ahead when I tell that this cannot lead to a happy ending.
All in all, given the heads up from the initial interview about the non-standard scene sequencing, I was very happy with the end result. The casting and acting added positively to the total experience, as was the case with the bluegrass music. The latter is still not my favorite, but it blended in very well with the proceedings, and thus formed an integral part of the story line and the decor. My conclusion after all is that telling the story this way, is the only logical way that really works.
The announcement text as published by the festival draws our special attention to the considerable portion of bluegrass music in the film. It made me hesitate a little when booking tickets, due to my association with country&western music that I don't like very much (maybe too "American life style" for me). But my prejudice proved very wrong, and the music score offered much more than I imagined. It is not a musical, however, where the music scenes carry the story line. Instead, the music appears on logical moments and does not come in the way of the drama.
An interview with the film director preceded the screening. Apart from the usual exchange of facts about how the film was made and how it relates to predecessors from the same director, I noted an important observation made by the interviewer (Patrick Duynslaegher, artistic director of the festival). He mentioned that the scene ordering was not the one he would have chosen. It proved to be a useful hint. If I had not known this before, I would have been left confused, and I certainly would have failed to appreciate the film. Now I satisfy myself with calling it "chronologically challenged", hopefully serving as a heads up for subsequent viewers. The only switch back in time shown explicitly is after the initial scene around the child's hospital bed. We see "7 years earlier" displayed announcing a backflash to the time before the parents were married. All later time switches back and forth (be prepared for many of those), have to be derived from the context. It needs some getting used to, but it works out very well, after all, to get the dramatic development across.
The bare story can be told in a few lines, but doesn't do the film justice. Two very different people get to know each other by chance, find a common ground in their love for bluegrass music, the woman gets pregnant unexpectedly, they get married, and raise the child that is born. The drama starts when the child has an incurable disease at the age of six, gets hospitalized for a long time, and undergoes some fruitless therapies. Finally, stem cell therapy seemed to offer the last straw, but after a hopeful start proved nevertheless too experimental to yield a positive end result.
Throughout the film we see significant events in the form of flashbacks. These events are taken from the healthy years of the child, and seem almost trivial at first. Two examples: the bird that flies against the veranda glass and dies, and the stories told about the many years that light from the stars is underway before it reaches earth. These are just examples, but have in common that they become more important later on, either as happy memories or as mishaps to hold against each other.
In the aftermath of their child's death we clearly see that they grow apart more and more. The only occasions where they still see each other, are the continued bluegrass concerts they give together with their band.
The very different reactions to their child's death is best illustrated by what follows after a TV speech by George W Bush, when he vetoes stem cell therapy research as against the will of God. In the middle of a concert, the man bursts out in a long speech. He states that stem cell therapy might have rescued their child when medical science had been given the chance for more field research, and not being hindered by people who put their beliefs above progress. She does not take it very well, retreats to the tattoo shop she owns (the place where they initially met, by the way), and she barricades herself. There is no spoiler danger ahead when I tell that this cannot lead to a happy ending.
All in all, given the heads up from the initial interview about the non-standard scene sequencing, I was very happy with the end result. The casting and acting added positively to the total experience, as was the case with the bluegrass music. The latter is still not my favorite, but it blended in very well with the proceedings, and thus formed an integral part of the story line and the decor. My conclusion after all is that telling the story this way, is the only logical way that really works.