Several months after the death of the father , the mother ,her son and her daughter get together in their modest flat in a project ("Villeperdue"(= Lost city) does exist ,but the events do not take place in this small village in the "Centre" region ).In movies, Family gatherings generally happen in rather rich-looking houses with well-off people where most of the problems are essentially psychological.Here the characters we meet come from a humble background :we do not even know if the sister works; the mother probably lives on a reversion pension,which is not much ;as for the son,he is a private ,not even a NCO: he seems to enjoy his being in the army ;we learn he is presently training in a boot camp (the last pictures show him there).
This mother-and-children reunion , to celebrate mom's birthday should be a moment's happiness ;however, deep wounds appear now and then ;the past remains vague but the mother claims that they have left her alone; she probably dreams of a reconstituted family with long-distance truck driver Regis and his daughter ;note that during the long sequence by the river where the children have a swim , Gaev introduces her new friend to their family but the night has fallen when Vincent shakes hands with him .Anyway ,the mother appears as a grown up kid ,who still acts as though she was in her twenties ;the intimate scenes are not always convincing,sometimes hysterical ,with lots of swearwords ,sometimes convivial,without apparent reason ;in spite of this reservation ,the director succeeds in making us believe there is something wrong in their relationship ,with revealing little details : the children smear the birthday cake with Chantilly cream (whipped cream) bought in a supermarket ,and they do not even bring a single present to their mom (only Regis does).
It's a very short movie (52 min) and ,in spite of obvious qualities, this work leaves us hungry for more;we haven't got enough time to make this family unit's acquaintance ;the soundtrack includes opera arias ,which may seem turgid to some ;but anyway ,kudos to the director for including a song in French ("Confidences Pour Confidences") whereas most of his colleagues opt for the obligatory English/American track(s).
