HOW TO PAD OUT A CLEVER FILM REVIEW WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE
ANYTHING TO SAY:
(1) Recount the plot
(2) Throw in gratuitous puns
(3) Write about yourself
Matt Groening, "How to Be a Clever Film Critic"
Bye-Bye, a French/Swiss/Belgian co-production directed by native
Frenchman Karim Dridi, is the tale of two brothers, both French-born
children of North-African immigrants, who travel from their home in Paris
to visit relatives in Marseilles. The elder, Ismaël, is then to
send the younger, Mouloud, to join their parents, who have since returned
to Africa. Mouloud, however, has no desire to say "ta-ta" to France, the
only country he has ever known, and, after a heated exchange with his
brother, promptly disappears, roaming the streets in search of excitement.
Ismaël's futile efforts to locate him are further complicated by his
(Ismaël's) unhealthy attraction to his cousin's beautiful
girlfriend, and the tensions that result. Watching the film unfold, I
found myself wondering how I would have felt as a preteen if my own
family had insisted that I should henceforth live in Italy, from which
my great-grandfather emigrated at the turn of the century. During a
visit to his father's homeland a couple of years ago, just before he
died, my paternal grandfather discovered, to his shock and amazement,
that his dad had abandoned a wife and children in Italy before crossing
the ocean to make a new life for himself in America; he never spoke of
the previous family to their successors, and it was only by chance that
we learned of these relatives, geographically distant but genetically
close. (This is a true story.) What if my family had made this
discovery decades ago, decided to move to Italy in order to get to know
their new kin, and dragged me along with them? How might I have reacted?
Would I, like Mouloud, have rebelled? Would I have turned to the
fascinating and dangerous world of drugs and guns? It seems rather
unlikely, really; I've been in difficult spots before, and yet have never
felt even a momentary urge to dilute my sorrows with the cheap and
tawdry water of...uh...hmm. I seem to have gone astray, a bit. Where
was I? Oh, yes, the film. Here, let me direct you to my review of last
year's City Unplugged, which will tell you
everything you need to know. Au revoir.