Beau Pere (1981)

Best movie ever!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Separated from his stepdaughter, raised for eight years as his own, after the girl's mother dies in a car crash, a pianist begins to mistake his fatherly affection towards her for romantic love, which causes a problem since the girl feels the same way and is set on taking her mother's place in this controversial Bertrand Blier film. The movie is actually far less sleazy than it might sound from the outset; there is relatively little in the way of nudity and lovemaking with the film instead focused on the mental dynamics between the pair, neither quite sure how properly express their strong feelings for one another. Things seem to get even more interesting as the girl's birth father catches on to how intimate the pair have become since the mother's death, and yet the film's meandering second half does the material no justice. There is so much build-up and tension leading up to the pair taking things too far that the film has trouble refocusing afterwards. That said, the movie ends on a pitch perfect suggestive final note. The gliding cinematography courtesy of the legendary Sacha Vierny is also excellent throughout with mirrored surfaces nicely favoured for a film about two individuals forced to reflect upon themselves. Blier additionally uses an interesting technique of having a handful of characters talk to the camera to provide narration, though the inconsistency of the narration is a tad jarring.

There is no doubt Ariel Besse is a pretty woman. I should say "girl," because she's supposed to be a 14-year-old in here who is having an affair with her 30- year-old stepfather. With that for a theme, I'm afraid this film is an allurement to perverts looking for some cheap thrills. Fortunately, it doesn't play as sleazy as it sounds and there is no actual sex shown. However, I still couldn't help but feel uncomfortable watching this, especially since Besse was about that age when she made the film and appears bare-breasted several times. Allowing their 15-year old daughter to be nude and passionately kissing an older man in a movie like this is a sad comment about Besse's parents. Interesting that most of the positive reviews here come from California. No wonder Michael Jackson liked it out there! Anyway, looking at this strictly from a film standpoint, it was a well-made movie, which was photographed decently, too. The French do make nice-looking movies, and it's not a boring story despite an abundance of nothing but talk. It's a decent story but......but this whole thing is wrong so I can't recommend this film.

"Beau-Père" is not a skin flick, though the cover of the DVD and VHS would make you think otherwise. Yes, it's about a very taboo topic, to say the least - the sexual relationship between a 40-ish piano player and his 14-year-old stepdaughter - but the great Bertrand Blier, who explored similar territory in "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" eases the unease by doing the unthinkable and turning the movie into a screwball comedy.Well, that's what we think, at first. Remi (played magnificently by Blier favorite Patrick Dewaere), not unlike Humbert in Nabokov's "Lolita" tells us of his tragic plight; after his wife dies tragically, he is left with his stepdaughter, Marion (Ariel Besse). Uncomfortable with the new rift in the household, Marion childishly assumes the "mother" role and takes on all motherly duties - including seducing her stepfather. Remi refuses, but there is danger lurking in Marion's pubescent body and puppy-dog eyes. Not realizing this danger, he eventually gives in.Of course, giving into his stepdaughter is a mistake that plunges both Remi and Marion deeper and deeper into misery. Even Marion's real father suspects a mutual sexuality between them and, in one of the film's more heartbreaking moments, completely dissolves his obligation as a father and OKs the incestuous affair. Remi and Marion, then, are not so much connected by their sexual bond, but by the fact that they've both been abandoned by the people they love. There's no real question about where the affair is going, but the tragedy lies in who gets hurt the most. The final image of the movie may haunt me forever.The movie is obviously not for all tastes, but it should be said that the sex is never gratuitous. In fact, it seems almost distracting when compared to what Blier really wants to get across - the divide between adolescence and adulthood and how seemingly frivolous sexual encounters can ruin lives forever. And, like "Hankerchiefs", the movie somehow provides some truly funny moments. "Beau-Père" is Bertrand Blier's masterpiece and a film that should be seen by all connaisseurs of intelligent, challenging cinema. 10/10

Spoilers herein.Nabokov's "Lolita" is a milestone in literature -- the narrator is obsessed to the point where anything he says is at least synthesized out of that obsession and at worse fabricated. It is only about sex in so far as giving a focus to the obsession of being.Here we have a very clever converse. Yes we have the stepdaughter, the "artistic" stepfather widowed by a car wreck and the copulation between the two. We have a child with the flue, and a key message delivered in writing. Performance permeates.The difference between that message in the book and this film mirrors the difference between the perspective of the two. In "Lolita," the reading of the diary comes immediately before the accident and is unintended. Here it comes immediately after and is.The story this time is from the girl's perspective. She is the one with the obsession and the seductive initiative. It is he that is wrapped up in performance and who is tempted away by a superior performer. Just this depth of understanding of such a radical experiment in narrative colors this film as something worth watching. (The designated watcher in this version is the redheaded wife of a fellow musician.)But otherwise, the film is a pedestrian affair. A few titillations, a few comedic moments, some sweetness. In other words, it carries all the baggage of a normal French film. It is bereft of, say, the lepidopteran -- or similar -- metaphors, the constant shifts in narrative layers (by this time, 1981, by no means experimental) and the references outside the film.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching.