Half-Price

Telling the story of a "different family" from the viewpoint of one of the children, this is an extremely light and "little" film. Somewhere between Truffaut's "Les Quatre Cents Coups" and Pippi Longstocking. Entirely shot with a DV camera, with the director's apartment as the set and casting her brother in one of the main characters. It was funny and entertaining while watching at it while it grew deeper after a while, hours after, leaving me with a slight anxiety, in fact. It is something that I would call a fake-umentary, that forces all the time the viewers to remember to themselves that they are watching a feature film and not a TV reportage. In my opinion the fact that the director "refers" all the time to both TV documentaries and home videos is one of the most interesting side of this film. Just go and see it unless you are the kind who thinks that special effects are a must.

This film was shown at this year's Sydney Film Festival as 'Half-Price'. I'm afraid I can't give a complete and proper review because I walked out on it after watching just over half of it. And I wasn't alone, as I noticed twenty or so other people leaving at the same time. I swear I heard the phrases "rats leaving a sinking ship" and "women and children first" in the foyer as people left. This is in fact the first time I've ever walked out on a movie, so that tells you something. I have no idea whether the film finds a way to justify itself in the end, but it had already used up all of my patience. I presume the director was trying to show us something about the lives of children when they're alone together by filming them up close, letting them do their own thing, and not including anything else that would intrude (such as a plot or dialogue). But from what I sat through, no matter what the pretentious intentions or justifications behind the film are, all that you're left with is the kind of boredom you'd get from watching someone else's particularly dull home movies of their kids. We're told very little about their lives, so we're left to watch their behaviour without any useful context. They listen to music, laugh, and go to the toilet. So what! Apart from the fact that the kids play together, we don't even get a feel for the bonds between them. This is really only bearable for a short while. By the 30-minute mark I was bored out of my skull. And when you're that bored, you start to question the point of watching scenes of kids sitting on the toilet, or hanging around the house naked while playing music. It's a lot like having someone show you pictures of their kids. If there are a couple of embarrassing photos in there - their kid naked in the bath or something - that's fine. But if it turns out that a whole heap of the photos are of their kids naked in the bath, then it can become plain weird and uncomfortable, and you start wondering why the person showing them to you doesn't realise it. It seems that I'm the first person to review this movie on IMDb. Hopefully someone who's sat through the whole thing will come along and write the second one, which might be more helpful than mine. But in the meantime, my advice would be to give this one a miss.

I'm not a film buff nor attend film festivals, however after watching this 2003 film was very impressed with the real to life saga of young people living on their own... A Blair Witch Project... inasmuch as how terrible for young people growing up alone without the guidance a loving parent(s). On the other hand, how terrible the idea children living alone could have such beautiful fun without some old miser, such as commenter below bearing down on their every movement.

Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide:

" Actress Isild Le Besco (Girls Can't Swim) makes her feature debut as a director with Demi-Tarif (Half-Price). The movie, shot on digital video on a miniscule budget, garnered attention in its native France after renowned filmmaker Chris Marker compared the experience of seeing it to the experience he and his friends had upon seeing Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless for the first time. Demi-Tarif follows the low-key adventures of three young siblings, Romeo (Kolia Litscher), Launa (Lila Salet), and the youngest, Leo (Cindy David), left on their own in a rundown Paris apartment. One of them narrates, wistfully explaining how their mother abandoned them and calls them once in a while to see how they are doing or tell them she loves them. The three kids do as they please, roaming the streets, running out of restaurants without paying for food, and shoplifting from the local grocery store. They eat whatever and whenever they want, gorging themselves on sweets. They beg for change on the Metro and show up late for school in tattered, dirty clothes. All the while, they try to keep the fact that they are alone a secret from the world of adults. Demi-Tarif had its U.S. premiere at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival."

While watching this Movie, I was repeatably thinking about, if this Movie was a live-documentation or all set up... But more then this I did like this fine feeling of the director for the kids - amazing! Only a few movies are able, to let me feel like a child again; this one did the best. I mean, I just did not only remember my childhood, with this movie, I really was a child while watching it! Finally, the movie gives you such a close look into happily unhappy child's that you don't know, if you should smile or cry... If someone does not understand this movie and walked out, then he or she should take a closer look to all the awards of the director an then think again - maybe not the movie is wrong, but maybe the one who walked out? Just great! Thanks for that movie!

"Demi-tarif", or "Half Price", has the same set-up as the classic Japanese movie, "Nobody Knows". It also deals with a group of siblings who are effectively abandoned by their parents and must fend for themselves.

The difference here, however, is that the tone is not elegiac or even dark. Rather, the focus is on what fun can be had without parental supervision. Sure, we see the kids stealing, begging, and lying to adults about their unwashed clothes and the lice in their hair. But the fun only really stops when adults intrude.

You are waiting for the party to be over, to see the grim reality of the situation dawn on the children, but it never really does. The movie doesn't have any real plot or trajectory. It's a true slice of life, which feels as much like a documentary as any movie I've seen.

I liked it.