IFFR 2009: MAMAN EST CHEZ LE COIFFEUR a.k.a. MOMMY IS AT THE HAIRDRESSER'S Review

It's the same every year: during the second half of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, movies which you never even noticed in the schedule at the start of the festival begin to appear high in the daily Audience Ratings. And if you still need to buy tickets for those titles, well, good luck to you, for you'll need it! When Word-Of-Mouth is very good here, it's immediately followed by a rush to the counter.

Thankfully, press has it somewhat easier. Heheh...

So last year I was able to see "Estômago" at the last minute, even though it was the surprise number two on the list (after "Persepolis"). This year I did the same thing, and managed to see the Canadian film "Maman Est Chez Le Coiffeur". And a beautiful film it is, which can easily be called a surprise crowdpleaser even though it doesn't seem to try to be.

The movie is about a rich family in Québec where, at the start of the summer holiday in 1966, the mother suddenly runs off to pursue a career in Europe. She not only leaves behind a stunned husband but also her three children, and the film shows how these people cope (or not) with this socially unacceptable situation.

More after the break...

The Story:

The last schoolday of the year is over, and fifteen-year old Élise is looking forward to spending the summer holiday with her friends and her two little brothers. It's 1966, the weather in Quebec is beautiful, and even though the youngest brother has a slight form of autism, life seems like a commercial.

But underneath all the gloss, something is wrong. The relationship between her parents is strained and Élise spots her father being a bit too familiar with one of his golf buddies. When she tells her mother about this, the effect is disastrous. The very next day, her mother asks her boss to be reassigned to London, gets the job and leaves immediately.

The family is stunned.

They try to make it appear to the outside world like nothing has happened (hence the phrase "Mommy is to the hairdresser's" whenever someone asks where she is), but as the days turn into weeks this gets harder and harder to do.

And during that summer, Élise also learns she is not alone: most of the people she knows turn out to have serious problems they hide...


The Movie:

Ah, summer holidays when you're a young teenager with friends to go outside with. We all know that feeling, have it locked away somewhere in our memory, but only few things can jog it successfully back to the surface. I'm not going to say Dan Simmons is one of the greatest writers ever, but his horror novel "Summer of Night" unlocked those memories flawlessly. And "Maman Est Chez Le Coiffeur" does the exact same thing.

Rotterdam in January is cold, and so are its cinemas. But I'll be damned if it wasn't summer during the screening.

What exactly the reason is for this temporary local warming is escapes me, but some factors of it I can describe. First and foremost a large cast of incredibly talented child actors who seem believable every single second they're onscreen. Second is a cinematography which goes for realism yet never fails to point out the beautiful summer scenery surrounding these children. Third is a script which doesn't paint the family's situation as larger than life, yet doesn't forget to focus on the details which can make life so miserable.

The combination surely is a magic one, but not in an obviously stunning way. Director Léa Pool used these elements in a remarkably non-flashy way: at times I thought I was watching some "tv-movie of the week", which oddly enough is exactly what seems to fit the material best. It's a very mature film. Not because it would contain any "adult content" (it doesn't) but in the sense of it being "grown up".
I haven't spoken to a single person who left the cinema feeling like they had seen a masterpiece, yet everyone thoroughly liked it. It sure gets under the skin, good feelings and bad. Even days later, thinking of the movie gives me the same feeling I had while watching it.


Conclusion:

Browsing through the IFFR-schedule this didn't seem to be my cup of tea (not being a human-interest junkie) so I let "Maman Est Chez Le Coiffeur" pass by. The high audience ratings made me recant my decision and I'm glad I did.
Do not go in expecting to be rocked to the core, but let it creep up on you and note how effective it is. "Maman Est Chez Le Coiffeur" doesn't try to magically produce a happy ending, nor does it become a spectacular tragedy. And for this movie, such an approach works.

So yes, this one is very much recommended.

The Rotterdam audience awarded this film with a whopping 4.5 out of 5, and it was in second place until Erik Poppe's "DeUsynlige" (reviewed earlier this year by Todd) displaced it on the very last day...