Un peu de neige

[bironic]

We had a brief burst of flurries today, driven hard by the winds of a cold front. This of course occurred during five of the ten minutes in which we had to walk outside. The sun was out on one side of the sky.

Just watched Son Frère (His Brother), dir. Patrice Chéreau. I've been putting it off because the end of the book made me cry my eyes out and it takes a bit of bracing oneself to face that again. No tears this time, though. More… solemn. More… French? Can a French director make a French book more French? The last line makes me want to say yes, ha.

I'm still working through whether it was as successful as the book. Certainly the shift in genre allowed it to tell its story differently—like showing whole scenes of everyday hospital indignities and frights, shaving, taking blood, calm manhandling, passing out, etc., in place of narrative. All you have to do in place of entire paragraphs is show the startling purple splenectomy scar, Thomas' growing weakness, the changes in Luc's gaze, the body language each time Luc is in bed with his boyfriend.

I remember there being a different emphasis in the book; still a focus on Thomas and Luc's gradual reconciliation and closeness as Thomas progresses through his illness, of course, but more in the book about daily conversations with the old man in the seaside town, more recollections between the brothers about growing up. In that way the movie functioned more as a companion piece, a nod to various threads of the book and then a slightly different take to suit a film. I don't remember there being so much of a homosexual undertone to the brothers' relationship either, but that could have been my naïveté at the time. Certainly the director wasn't afraid to go there, anyway. And a cameo by Pascal Greggory, one of Chéreau's favorites and also mine.

Ooh. I'd so cast Greggory as a Cardassian for one of my Mary Sue stories.

(Whoops. Way to trivialize a book/film about dealing with a seriously ill family member.)

Comments

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Of course, the last, tiny line is what made me giggle and hit 'comment.' :)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

After a great deal of consideration :) I'm thinking he'd be suitable for the Ra'ani interrogator (http://bironic.livejournal.com/232669.html). Mm.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Oh my YES.

(Oh, poor Karin. How beautifully she suffers.)

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

Greggory is soooo hot, yes, unf.

I had missed this Chéreau, and don't know anything about the book, so now I'm intrigued. *notes for later*

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Maybe because it was made for TV first? Either way, I think it's worth a watch - certainly Philippe Besson's book is worth a read (as is the other one of his that I know of because it was translated, In the Company of Men).

Mm, Pascal Greggory. Now there is a man with a mouth. One of my Festivids requests, for Reine Margot/Queen Margot, included a plea for his character. Also Confusion of Genders/La confusion des genres is next on my Netflix list - have you seen that one? It looks lovely.

Sorry for all the little edits!

[alpheratz.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting. I'm having a hard time deciding if it's my thing, but I'm definitely intrigued.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Happy to talk about it more with you, if you like! I didn't mention for instance how it was shot - it was filmed for television, and all the close-ups of faces and bodies are quite stark rather than sexy/flattering, in keeping with the theme and tone. In fact, one of the adjectives I'd use to describe the movie is "hairy." :) You really get familiar with the brothers' facial and body hair as the camera focuses on bodies as it discusses the breakdown of bodies and our relationships with our bodies and other people's bodies.