Tombés du ciel

What I really like about this movie is the way it transcends the border of ordinary drama, entering a mythical region. It tells a sort of a modern fairy tale – a big airport becomes a strange, enchanted castle.

The main character, a man in white socks and without shoes, is detained in the international section of the airport because together with his shoes all his documents were stolen. Unsympathetic officials prevent him from entering the „outer world", he has to remain „en sous-douane". This means, literally translated, in the sub-customs-area, but the way the expression is used it really sounds like a special state of mind and existence in which one ceases to be entirely human and becomes a kind of a ghost. Of course, the movie wants to make it plain, that it can happen to anyone.

The hero meets other people who are in a permanent state of „sous-douane", a little international crowd, a tiny microcosm. They are like some kind of brownies or kobolds who know the airport inside out, passing their time going rabbit hunting between the runways or exploring the entrails of the huge substructure of the airport. The hero gets released from the castle he is forced to haunt, nobody saves the others who remain behind.

Tombés du ciel (fallen from the skies) is a good drama with an excellent international cast and many real airport locations that is not easily forgotten.

After the 9pm news on TV5 they sometimes show a film. Last night they chose "Les Tombees du Ciel" with Jean Rochefort, one of my favourite actors.

Like so many French films, it showed how hard life can be and in the end it just left me with a sense of hope, a feeling of lightness.

Shot almost entirely at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris, it portrayed the life of the people trapped between states. They really do exist - I've seen them at Sheremetzavo 2 in Moscow.

Films say so much about the society that makes them - often in ways that were never intended by the director. This film just confirmed the reasons I spend so long and I work so hard to learn French.

I like this film and watched it several times.

In this story, Arturo, the main character(a wealthy Canadian French living in Italy, played by Jean Rochefort) is thrown into a situation where he has only the minimal procession, no money, but only some space to lie down in a room with a kitchen, surrounded by strangers (two men and a woman and a child).

He was on his way back to Italy from Canada, and, having lost his passport, was restricted to the transit zone at the Paris international airport. There, as long as one manage to go out within the facility, you have all the resources (say, wild rabbits for trade with an airport restaurant to earn some cash to go by).

Totally unexpectedly, he experienced true friendships through interactions with these strangers living there for one reason or another, in a span of few days into the New Year's Day.

The story is beautifully crafted (but not overdoing it - beauty of the French film). A brief and adventurous excursion to the city of Paris on the New Year's Eve is very touching thanks to beautiful images and music.

This film is great for the kids as episodes are funny. It is also great for the grownups as it shows What really matters in life is relationships with others.

The story focuses a short episode in the life of a guy who is forced by the circumstances to spend a few days in Paris international airport. During this forced stay, he meets four other people who are in a situation worse than his and have been confined (and still are) in a kind of underground airport facility, because they have not the papers needed to be allowed to enter legally french territory.

This fortuitous meeting, in which a new character shows up in a very small group of people, and therefore induces new moves in this group, invites to a small and personal reflection on human beings and society. Personal, because the story doesn't give a precise clue in this sense.

The story is not closed. At the end, the only expectation of progress in the life of those characters is the kind of adoption of Zola (the young African boy) by Arturo (the main character). The other characters are destined to stay confined in the airport, and future less.

Angela and Serge seem to be existentially stuck. Serge spend most of his time writing a kind of huge autobiography in which he tells his confuse origins. Angela, expect that the stars will help her to find a direction for her life. Knak works from time to time on an electronics device (a radio?) as if this device would give him answers to his actual life. Serge is french (with a strong Marseille accent), Angela is Columbian. Knak, remains an enigma from the begin to the end. No one knows from where he is and why he has been confined, because he speaks an African dead language.

Yet it's not a sad story, because: (1) there are a few hilarious moments during the film (2) those who are stuck still hope to get free one day; (3) at the end of the film I smiled seeing Arturo and Zola walking towards Paris where there is an expectation of a new life for them, specially for Zola who dreams about becoming a jet pilot.

It's a film which deserves to be seen on TV, before going to bed.

Sadly this movie is not yet available on video, but it is delightful comedy in the traditional French style. Full of wacky characters and hostile officials that any tourist can 'remember' from airport experiences. Strongly recommended.