It's Not Me, I Swear Is Wonderful Cinema

The Opening Night film, It's not me, I swear, is a brilliantly conceived, directed and acted production by director/screenwriter Phillippe Falardeau. He wrote the screenplay based upon the book by Bruno Hebert. The bittersweet film is about a ten year old boy Leon who has anger and control issues, a difficult family life, and vivid imagination. 

Taking place during the Summer of 1968, the texture and setting are pitch and visually perfect. Leon's mother, Madeline (played sufferingly by Suzanne Clement) a frustrated artist, decides to leave everything (her children, husband and home) and start life over again in Greece. The contradiction is that the mother is going to a dictatorship to find freedom. His father, Philippe, (played by Daniel Briere) is a do-gooder public interest attorney who has had little quality time for his family.

The picture shows how Leon acts out before and after his mother's departure. He throws eggs at a neighbor's house, lights fire to his arguing parents' bed, breaks into and literally destroys various vacationing neighbors' homes. He learns how to lie rather professionally and falls in love with an admiring also parentally damaged neighborhood girl, Lea. She is his only friend. Following a beautifully drawn map by Lea, the two go on a Quixotic journey to try to overcome the excrusciating pain of growing up while feeling abandoned.

Unlike in most other films with children as much more wooden or two dimensional beings, the child actor leads (Leon and Lea) are unpretentious, self-assured and  superb. We hear their voices express real thoughts and feelings of prepubescent individuals, quirky, but believable. Naturalistically, they act as if we are watching them in real life. From Leon's older brother Jerome, to the bully across the street, to schoolmates, the other child actors throughout the film were also very good. The adult roles, mostly perturbed and a bit smug, middle class French-Canadians characters living in suburban Montreal, were realistically portrayed as well.

Art and life is a continuing theme in the film. Leon and Jerome's mother is an artist whose art is frustrated by life. She escapes to do her art. Lea is a wonderful cartographer who renders buildings and houses from memory that draw her to life's realities. Jerome is a brilliant kite maker crafting and illustrating skillful kites that allow him to escape his less than elevated life. Even Leon is an artist of destruction, creatively destroying the present reality looking for tunnels by which to escape.

All through the film, Leon has a history of what he calls "my deadly accidents." These often near fatal or bodily harmful events that could be easily interpreted as actual suicide attempts, screams for attention or love and even twisted humor. The older brother Jerome desires normalcy that his baby brother's actions deny. Leon sees the world as abnormal, and behaves with antisocial freedom or anarchy in reaction to this view. Oddly, while still at home, his mother seems to cover up for Leon's behavior and at times even encourages it. This is her own anti-establishment orientation that eventually rises to become her flight to Greece. She even advises Leon, "It's bad to lie, but it's worse to lie badly." This is not a very good mantra for a troubled boy. Leon also identifies with a fox. This animal suggest cunning, courage and speed.

Waiting his mother's return, Leon ramps up his usual destroy and destruct activities, breaking into and trashing neighbors' houses, stealing money to fly to Greece to visit his mother, and running away. Lea becomes a willing accomplice to the getaway. Of course, things do not turn out the way the two adventurers expect for very different reasons. The ending of the film is not a clear resolution for anyone involved, but there is a quiet rather than desperate suggestion of a sense of moving on.

Director Falardeau demonstrates considerable deftness in creating a Past-Perfect, suburban, 1960s Quebec. He somehow reveals a child's view of an adult world by the use of humor, sensitivity, sadness and even love. Cinematographer Andre Turpin elegantly frames even Kitsch and pieces of domestic nostalgia in an evocative visualization. Turban uses numerous overhead shots to eloquently depict aspects of the narrative.

It's Not Me, I Swear (C'est pas moi, c'est l'autre) has been shown at many film festivals including the Toronto Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival. This is cinema at its best. Great things should be expected from Philippe Falardeau in the future. This film and film series at the MFA are wonderful gifts from the Province of Quebec.