Home (2008)

****1/2

Have you ever found yourself wondering about those people who live right alongside the freeway the anonymous folk whose lives we peer into for mere nano-seconds as we hurtle our way past their apartments and houses en route to our destinations? Well, the artists who made "Home" certainly have, and the answer they've come up with makes for a fascinating, one-of-a-kind cinematic experience that, even more than most movies, has to be seen to be fully appreciated.

The family in "Home" leads a relatively carefree and decidedly unconventional lifestyle. Their house stands adjacent to an abandoned freeway, which they use as their own private recreation area. They also view bath time as a communal experience (this being Switzerland and all).

All is going reasonably well (despite some mild familial tension here and there), until one day and without any warning, the roadway is reopened to traffic, shattering the family's once-peaceful existence with the sounds of whooshing cars and honking horns, the penetrating odor of exhaust fumes and fossil fuels, a diminution of privacy (especially during traffic jams), and a nonstop assault on the senses. Even getting to the other side of the road to school or to work becomes a daily, death-defying game of chicken with speeding vehicles whose drivers have no intention of slowing down for bothersome and unwelcome pedestrians.

This tremendously odd little film is obviously intended as a parable about the oppressiveness and chaos of modern life as it encroaches ever more forcefully onto the peace and tranquility of a rural existence. The family members become increasingly ill-tempered, paranoid, neurotic, even violent as the outside world inexorably presses its way into their once-placid lives.

But far more than the characters and themes, it is the astonishing mise-en-scene that ultimately works its way into the viewer's psyche and that makes it hard not only to avert one's eyes during the course of the movie but to get back to one's own "reality" once it's over. Director Ursula Meier's work here is reminiscent of Luis Bunuel in one of his less playful moods, as she focuses on a group of everyday people trapped in a surrealistic nightmare from which they are unable to awaken. It is definitely a case in which the scene becomes an integral reflection of the psychological states of the characters.

Isabelle Hupert and Olivier Gourmet play the parents; Madeleine Budd and Kacey Mottet Klein their two children; and Adelaide Leroux, Gourmet's nubile daughter from a previous marriage who spends most of her time sunbathing for the highly appreciative motorists and truckers who keep whizzing on by.

Unique and unforgettable.

A family's isolated idyllic existence along the edge of an abandoned highway is interrupted when it is unexpectedly opened for traffic. Ursula Meier, in a potent directorial debut, depicts from the outset and directly without any need for explanation the effortless and carefree life of a family whose relative isolation enables them to live as they will, to escape from the expectations and judgments of others and live simply. We are gradually made aware that their stability as a family depends upon this separation from the outside world. This is especially true of the mother, played fearlessly by Isabelle Huppert, whose ability to manage the home and to cope with her situation begins to break down as the world intrudes. There are hints that this is not the first time, and that they had come to this place in hopes of achieving some kind of stability.

The cinematography is rich, the performances uniformly strong, the story manages to work both as drama and as allegory. I loved the soundtrack, and Nina Simone over the credits was a perfect ending. I just finished seeing it the second time and it managed to both fascinate and frighten. At some level this is, effectively, a highly restrained ecological horror film, where the monster is just the world encroaching in, in the form of increasing traffic and incessant noise and pollution, and that triggers desperation. In many ways the film reminded me of a more subtle and smaller scale version of something like The Mosquito Coast, and it works with the same issues: the idea of the need to escape into a carefree wilderness, the idea that a man should somehow protect his family at all costs from the risks of the outside world.

On the one hand, the drama that accompanies the gradual breakdown of their comfortable rituals is fascinating to watch. Hints that the highway will be opening are met at first with disbelief, then curiosity and eventually despair. On the other hand, as it develops there is a clear sense that something more is at stake here than the merely personal lives of this family. There are hints of something more than just a realistic story of familial breakdown, and I couldn't help but think of Ballard's Concrete Island and of Buñuel's The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie, or even the much darker, Dogtooth. After all the life they manage to lead is a kind of bourgeois fantasy with a rugged male father figure who goes off into the unknown every day in order to bring back the supplies that will sustain his family, and of the beautiful wife who is keeper of the home, who greets each child as they come home from school with a ready-made snack, of the carefree innocence with which siblings bathe together nude it is this fantasy they have managed to achieve apart, that inevitably won't last, but it's fascinating how far they are willing to go in an effort to maintain it. The final shot, that depicts what is left of their efforts, from the perspective of an intrigued traveler on the highway, manages to say a great deal about general carelessness regarding the impact of the endless suburbanization of everyday life. From the perspective of "progress" it's a good thing that everyone is connected and nobody can ever be away from the gaze of their neighbors. I'm not so sure that's a good thing, but as the film makes clear it's not an easy thing to escape.

Buy Home (2008) Now

This is not your summer blockbuster, with a bad guy, a superhero, and a big confrontation that saves the world. No, it's way better than that.

This movie celebrates the ups and downs of life, and It's very human -very real. It's a European Art film. It has a simple plot and a great deal of character development. The acting is superb. You really get to understand this family. Without spoiling it, it is bittersweet in some ways, but the level of family commitment by the mom and dad is something that few of us have experienced in our lives, and that's the point -life is a journey, not a destination. This is a wonderful film about family and how the bonds of love can overcome extreme challenges.

This artwork is in French, so if you are in North America and speak no French, you'll need to get the DVD for Region 1 players that comes with English subtitles.

Enjoy!

-Here's some official info on the flick:

Switzerland's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards, HOME is a mesmerizing fable of modern family life starring internationally renowned actress Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher).

Huppert plays Marthe, a happy-go-lucky mother whose family enjoys an idyllic existence in their isolated, ramshackle home, which edges onto an abandoned highway. Almost entirely cut off from society at large, they forge their own utopia. Everything changes when city trucks roll in to complete the road's construction, allowing rush hour traffic to start rumbling by. Refusing to give up their solitude, Marthe, her husband Michael (Olivier Gourmet), and their three children resort to increasingly desperate measures to insulate themselves from the pollution creeping inside their windows.

With her debut feature, director Ursula Meier has created "a bewitching dream of a film" (London Telegraph), a funny, moving, and thought-provoking drama that tackles issues of environmental anxiety, familial strife, and the essential pleasure of a quiet night inside. With "terrific performances and superb cinematography" (Time Out NY) by Agnes Godard (Beau Travail), HOME exhibits a unique force and beauty that is an announcement of a major filmmaking talent.

Movie Trailer as of Oct 2012:

Read Best Reviews of Home (2008) Here

I was browsing for a good movie in the foreign movie section of my local public library here in Blue Ash, and when I noticed this one, I had to pick it up right away, if not else since this stars Isabelle Huppert, a legend in French cinema.

"Home" (98 min.; originally released in 2008) brings the tale of a family of five living in splendid isolation in a house along an incomplete highway. We learn they have lived like this for 10 years, and quite happily and care-free. The opening scene of the family playing street-hockey is a perfect introduction. Alas, disaster strikes when the news comes that the highway is being completed and opened. What initially is a trickle of cars becomes a wave of cars and trucks, and the family's entire existence as they knew it comes to an end. Isabelle Huppert's character does not want to move at any cost, and to battle the never-ending noice, the family shuts all windows and doors and layers the house with tons of sound-proofing material. This time, the resulting isolation is not so splendid.

"Home" is the original title of the movie, which is a bit curious since this is a French-speaking movie. That aside, this was Switzerland's official entry for the Foreign Movie Oscars for 2008 and it's easy to see why. This is a dark movie, for sure, but one that is definitely worth seeking out. Isabelle Huppert, 56 years old when this was filmed, looks as beautiful as ever, and her acting skills are tops. But the other family members are quite good as well, in particular the little boy. Highly recommended!

Want Home (2008) Discount?

I always know I'm going to enjoy a dark moment if Isabelle Huppert is in a film; one of my favorite French actresses; many Americans may only have seen her in "I love Huckabees"...but I digress. "Home" wrestles with just that idea, what is a home? Is it a place, is it a feeling, is it the people you live with, and if all those things change, then what exactly is it? Home takes place in a french countryside, bordering a 10 year abandoned interstate that never opened. The family has adapted and extend its boundary line incorporating it into part of their kingdom; they play hockey on it, watch TV on it, barbecue on it, sun on it, and even have their satellite dish attached to its guard rail. But is this family prepared psychologically to maintain this idea of home, when progress drives through the front yard or, will they be imprisoned in a castle of their own choosing?

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