Category: Drama/High Drama
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Most consider the 1970s up until the late 1990s to be the Golden Age of Australian cinema, and to a very large extent, I agree. From my perspective, it was after the year 2000 that Australian movies became very preachy and political and were more-or-less a vehicle for pushing a socially-acceptable message that would resonate with the high-falutin' film critic types, rather than just being a good story that the average Australian would like. Alongside that, Australian movies have had a long-held reputation for just not being very good (save for the odd exception).
Case in point - back in the Golden Age, Australia had a laugh at three guys in drag on a bus, we loved people dancing strictly in ballrooms, and we even loved the animated movie with the two fish and the shark! So don't tell us we don't make good movies - we just don't make as many as we think we do, and the ones that aren't good are usually made by wankers, for wankers.
And the reason for my spiel is is that The Last Days Of Chez Nous clearly comes from that pre-2000's era - this movie simply tells a compelling human drama and doesn't try to moralise or demonise or semonise. It was a movie made because someone thought the book would look good on screen, and you don't need a massive budget for it.
If you somehow don't happen to speak French, chez nous basically means "our house", so put two and two together - you get "the last days of our house", a poignant title because TLDoCN tells the story of Beth and Jean-Pierre, two contrasting people in a marriage of convenience...
Beth, being fastidious and stern, as opposed to Jean Pierre (JP), a Frenchman who is much more liberated in his views (though classically European in his outbursts). The movie starts off with Beth's younger sister, Vicki, arriving back from an overseas holiday and JP not taking a liking to her. However, the departure of Beth on an outback road trip with her cranky father sees JP and Vicki draw closer to the point they begin an affair.
Beth finds out, everyone's lives are upended, and the end of the movie sees JP walking out with his possessions and saying his goodbyes to everyone.
From a technical perspective, this movie is very simply made - no special effects, very simple camera work, and probably the biggest production costs was when they shot all the outback scenes. The top-down shot of the two scoops of ice-cream at the outback diner is probably the most complex in the whole movie.
As a viewer, I really get the impression that this is the kind of film SBS movie reviewers love - and what I mean by that is this movie and its cinematic style represent a certain type of drama that film buffs love, but the wider general audience will probably say "is anything going to happen in this movie?". It's not a date film, it's not a rom-com, it's not a comedy, there's no titillation (except for two seconds of boobs and a shot of Vicki wearing only a bedsheet). I'd say it's High Drama
Though it was interesting to see a pre-Downfall Bruno Ganz - the outburst JP has about being asked if the movie was colour or black and white gave me Hitler Bunker Scene vibes.
TLDoCN is a decent story and one that is fairly relatable, though the ending left me kinda depressed.
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