La Buche (2000)

Synopsis: LA BUCHE marks the directorial debut of Daniele Thompson, best known as the award-winning screenwriter of hit films like Cousin, Cousine and Queen Margot. Thompson, who also co-wrote, imbues LA... LA BUCHE marks the directorial debut of Daniele Thompson, best known as the award-winning screenwriter of hit films like Cousin, Cousine and Queen Margot. Thompson, who also co-wrote, imbues LA BUCHE with a keen sense of holiday nostalgia as she follows various members of a Parisian family riven with discord over four eventful days before Christmas.

Following the Dec. 21 funeral of her second husband, Yvette (Francoise Fabian) is comforted by her three grown daughters by her now estranged first husband, Stanislas (Claude Rich), a retired Russian-Jewish violinist . The eldest, Louba (Sabine Azema), who lives with her father, carries on the musical tradition by singing crowd-pleasing bohemian standards at a Russian cabaret; Sonia (Emmanuelle Beart) is a perfectionist bourgeois housewife headed for a messy divorce; and the youngest, Milla (Charlotte Gainsbourg), is a hard-charging businesswoman with a tomboy demeanor.

After 12 years of trysts with married lover Gilbert (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), Louba unexpectedly finds herself pregnant for the first time at 42. Also around is Joseph (co-scripter Christopher Thompson), a slightly mysterious unemployed young man who has a 5-year-old daughter by his ex-wife, Annabelle (Isabelle Carre), and lives in a workshop in Stanislas' courtyard.

Thompson turns the neat trick of finding humor amidst the resentments and infidelities that in other hands may seem only suitable for tears, and achieves a surprising but highly satisfying family reconciliation. -- © Empire Pictures [More]

Starring: Francoise Fabian, Sabine Azema, Emmanuelle Beart, Charlotte Gainsbourg

Starring: Francoise Fabian, Sabine Azema, Emmanuelle Beart, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Claude Riche

Director: Daniele Thompson

Director: Daniele Thompson

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