Profession du Père

That's not the first time that Benoit Poelvoorde is so good in a dark character; remember C' EST ARRIVE PRES DE CHEZ VOUS, but the audience can't prevent to smile or even laugh in front of the performance, in such a character. This role was made for him. The subject of this film has never been treated before, as far as I now, the educational influence of a father on his son concerning war in Algeria. And what a father suffering of mythomania. This is not really a dark and depressing movie but not a comedy either. A good family study with, I repeat, a new light brought on the French Algeria war period, from an ordinary family point of view, and the behaviour of a father.

Mythomania is current in our times; it becomes dangerous when you do believe in your land of make- believe: the father lives in his own fantasy world , where he meets imaginary people or real-life ones such as President Kennedy or Edith Piaf ,and characters he has invented from start to finish,his son's "godfather", the hero-with-the arm-cut , to make up for the mediocrity of his own life ; the Evian agreement (this settlement called for an immediate ceasefire and ended a seven-and-a-half-year anticolonial war for Algerian independence ,approved by a large majority of French voters,but the ones living in Algeria were excluded from the ballot) triggers off the daddy's madness (for the viewer knows from the start he's ready for the loony bin ),which Benoit Poelvoorde's over-the-top -and almost frightening-acting (in his first scenes ,he verges on stand -up comic) does nothing to rectify .

In fact, anything else could have sparked off the father's anger ;but it was 1962, and he could have been part of the 10% who did not agree, and the OAS ( illegal military organization supporting French rule in Algeria in the sixties) was fascinating for this macho man whose (essentially make -believe) military career was heroic and fantasy-like.

But a person who puts on an act needs an audience and followers :he chooses his own son he introduces to his dangerous world : secret associations, secret messages and missions for the sake of one's homeland are enthusing for a twelve-year -old who cannot still distinguish between reality and "his father's stories " .A young mind is easily influenced ,and to make the matters worse,he meets a young pied-noir (French colonial born in Algeria ). A (historical) assassination attempt on the Général De Gaulle" is only a diversion , the father says ,now it's up to us.

The woman's condition is evoked through the character of the mother :she must be at the beck and call of her husband ;the only time she goes out to attend a concert infuriates the macho man who forces her to sleep on the door mat when she comes back ; women did not always work in the sixties (the mother has a job of an accountant's assistant which provides the family with their means of existence ,though) ,as for the "profession du père" (= father's profession) ,-the title hints at the form the students fill in at school-,it's would be paratrooper.

It was not the first time mythomania had been treated in France ; in"Jeu De Massacre "(1967) a playboy became a comics hero, ; coincidence,in both movies, drawings play a prominent part;one can wonder in "profession du père" why the teacher can be so naive and never wonder whether those horrible drawings do not conceal a perturbed life the first time she's seen them.