FILM & VIDEO

Cinema Paradiso presents
Senses of Cinema Evenings
HOME
There are two questions never answered in the French film “Home.” How did this family come to live here? And why does the mother fiercely refuse to leave, even after a four-lane freeway opens in her front yard? Both are more satisfactory remaining as questions. In any event, as the film opens, they live in a comfortable small home in the middle of vast fields and next to the highway, which hasn't been used for 10 years. So much is the road their turf that the story begins with them playing a family game of street hockey on its pavement.

Then big trucks arrive to lay down a fresh coating of asphalt, and steel guardrails are installed on each side and down the middle. Workmen wordlessly clear the highway of their hockey sticks, inflatable swimming pool, satellite dish, charcoal grill and so on. On the radio, they hear breathless coverage of the road's grand opening, and eventually the first car speeds past their house.

The family seems ordinary enough, if not quite conventional. The parents snuggle, the boy plays, the sister in her early 20s sunbathes and smokes in the front yard, the teenage daughter wears mostly black and sulks. Michel the father (Olivier Gourmet) goes off to work every morning in the green Volvo station wagon. Marthe the mother (Isabelle Huppert) does the laundry. (“Today is whites day.”) There's horseplay in the bathtub, which the family seems to share rather freely.

Making Great Films From All Over The World A Lot Less Foreign

A true favorite for all palates, French cuisine always captivates everyone!Inspired in different regions of France, tonight's menu will consist of the following magnifique dishes: Nicoise salad, Ratatouille, French Beef Stew (Pot au Feu), Chicken Provencal and for dessert Profiteroles all served with a glass of wine.

Begin with complimentary wine and food representing the country or region of the featured film. Then enjoy an award winning film Introduced by Shelly Isaacs and presented with English subtitles.

Following the film. Join Shelly for his post screening commentary