First Communion Movie Review

Rene Feret's First Communion is a portrait of a family over a 100-year span; it has much the same effect as the spinning pages of a huge scrapbook filled with the faces of people who may mean a great deal to each other, but not to a stranger who casually picks up the scrapbook. Since Feret tells us that it isn't important who married whom over the years or who died, it's exactly like watching a bunch of someone else's home movies. The ballad that's supposed to hold everything together is insipid, but Jean-François Robin's cinematography is exquisite, and the main redeeming virtue of this immature first film. AKA: La Communion Solonnelle.

1977 185m/C FR Claude-Emile Rosen, Claude Bouchery, Vincent Pinel, Yveline Ailhaud, Patrick Fierry, Jany Gastaldi, Marcel Dalio, Philippe Leotard, Rene Feret; D: Rene Feret; W: Rene Feret; C: Jean-Francois Robin; M: Sergio Ortego.