How I Killed My Father Movie Review 2003

No fathers were actually killed in the making of this film. Grim, dry melodrama about a man whose life is upset when the father who deserted him as a boy reappears in his life. Jean-Luc (Berling) is an aloof doctor with a seemingly perfect life but very little passion for his work or his family, and he's afraid of having children. Enter his father, Maurice (Bouquet), who storms back in and starts to wear away at his son's appearance of perfection. The result is a metaphorical tug-of-war between the two men. Fontaine's direction is both effective and ruthless as she questions the nature of the relationship between father and son, but it's occasionally heavy-handed and predictable, giving the sense that the characters are doomed before they get a chance to start.

Distribution

Not Yet Released

Available on DVD
Running time 100 minutes.
Originally from French, Spanish.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Bad Dads, Brothers & Sisters, Single Parents, Doctors & Nurses, Flashback, Family Reunions

Screenplay

Anne Fontaine, Jacques Fieschi

Cast

Michel Bouquet, Charles Berling, Natacha Regnier, Amira Casar, Hubert Kounde, Stephane Guillon

Cinematography

Jean-Marc Fabre

Director

Anne Fontaine

Music

Jocelyn Pook

Other

Jean-Claude Laureux, Guy Lecorne, Sylvain Chauvelot, Corinne Jorry

Producer

Philippe Carcassonne, Cine B, France 2 Cinema, New Yorker Films