First Day of the Rest of Your Life, The

aka: Le Premier Jour du Reste de ta Vie
France 2008, 114 minutes
Dir. Rémi Bezançon
In French with English subtitles
Rating: [M]
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Comedy, Drama

Topics: Period 1990s, Rites-of-passage.

Feat. Jacques Gamblin, Zabou Breitman, Deborah Francois, Marc-André Grondin, Pio Marmaï

Aroview: Five days in the life of an average, functional family form the basis of this universally appealing French comedy spanning the decade of the 1990's.

The parent-teenager dynamic is central to most of the conflicts, with each of the five chapters more-or-less focused on a different family member. Events are brushed over crisply, and the cast are typically too beautiful for their supposedly working class boots, but such are the hallmarks of the bourgeois dramatic comedy. Getting the cultural references just right, writer/director Bezancon has a genuine eye for the stylish set piece and an ear for music (Lou Reed's dog-eared "Perfect Day" notwithstanding), and taps a vein of 'nostalgic realism' that energized the similar French-Canadian film, C.R.A.Z.Y.

NZ International Film Festival 2009