Saint-Jacques... La Mecque

I just saw this yesterday at the French Film Festival at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Along with The Light, this has been my favorite film of the festival. The disparate group of nine travelers and guide, each with their own literal and emotional baggage, tackles a 3 month hike through the mountains of France and Spain, along the path of a famous catholic pilgrimage. Interestingly enough, not one of the travelers seems to have religious motivations for the travel, except for the naive young Arab who thinks he's going to Mecca.All are of different ages,classes, races, ethnic backgrounds.The three hysterical fighting siblings are completely believable as are all the other characters.Many of the developments are predictable but the ride was SUCH a joy!I love the elation that can come from such good film-making.

When I heard a new Coline Serreau movie was coming out shortly, I knew already I wouldn't miss it... and it ended up being one of my favorite genres: a road movie! Nine totally different persons are put together on this Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage where almost none of them give a sh*t for the deep religious background - excepted the young French boy with Arab roots who thinks they are going to Mecca - and after the eight weeks walk each of them comes out enriched not only with money, but also with a larger or somehow different family. The situation comic is so sweet, all of the pilgrims trying to find mobile phone coverage somewhere in the deepest French pampa, the things each of them dream about, this film brought me to laugh a lot and in some other moments also close to tears. The screenplay is full of wit and the landscape... oooh the landscape... and of course no decent French film could be a real French film without an abundant cooking and dining scene! I hope you also enjoy this film with all senses as much as I did!

Pierre, a rich boss, geek of working (De Penguern), Claude, his alcoholic and lifetime unemployed brother (Darroussin) and Clara, a moaning teacher who is incidentally their sister (Robin) learn the death of their mother. The notary tell them few things about the assets (a sum of money and a house) they will inherit... in the only condition of traveling together during 2 months the path of Saint Jacques De Compostel. After a violent refusal, they decide (separatly) to do it. This initiatory travel, the meeting between the different characters will change them and lead them to realize who they really are and what a group -a family- is.

The performances are extremely convincing, the actors ARE the characters they perform. With a lot of great henchmen (Pascal Legitimus, Vannier-Moreau) and some fresh young actors (the charming girls Bunel, Kreme and the likable Arabs friends Saïdi, Cazalé) lead some under stories that gain weight to the movie.

This is not the best Coline Serreau movie but "Saint Jacques..." contains great moments of reflection, humour and emotion. A must see.

Hallucinogenic alienation and left-wing schmaltz during a trek on ancient Christian pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, shrine of Santiago Matamoros - Saint James the Moor-Killer. One plot line revolves around two young men of Arabic descent who speak French and their relationship with their traveling companions. These people are indigenous French equally étranger to Christianity or at any rate very open-minded indeed. Another theme concerns three older siblings who must go on this particular pilgrimage in order to collect an inheritance. One of these is a state-supported alcoholic who receives no ascertainable spiritual or social benefit from the effort. Another is an uptight conservative sans social conscience who magically awakens to his plight through no other means than simply suffering a bit of discomfort and outward bound-type group bonding. The third is a dedicated socialist teacher well versed in Christian-baiting. At a later date she is apparently ready to "screw the rich" (as discussed earlier in a tender moment) via Eurabic alliances bolstered by her Christian mother's money. The movie is interspersed with inchoate dream sequences meant to rival Christian grandeur but merely succeeds in reminding this viewer of the increasingly banal nihilism of European elites. Clever plot full of modernist irony, beautiful scenery of France and Spain, and multicultural sentimentality only residents of the wealthier Parisian arrondissements could love.

I'm at a loss to know why IMDb offers so little information on a film that's been on release a couple of weeks and is currently playing in 17 salles in Paris alone. Be that as it may this is our old friend the eccentric Will in yet another guise. Audrey Hepburn completists will have encountered it in Mario Zampi's Laughter In Paradise where her cigarette girl was incidental to the legatees charged with performing tasks that were out of character and foreign to their nature in order to inherit their share of a legacy. This time around three siblings discover they must make a pilgrimage to a noted shrine before they can divvy up the loot and, oh, yes, they have to do it the hard way - on foot. Naturally with such a story it's all about the journey not the goal, a sort of Heart Of Lightness if you will. It's pleasant enough though perhaps we're entitled to expect more from Colline Serrau, who made her name with Three Men And A Cradle and followed up with Romuald Et Juliet. It's nice to see Muriel Robin back in action and Jean-Pierre Darroussin is always worth the price of admission. Take a look, why not.