Mother and Son
Annabelle Lengronne delivers a star performance in a drama about an immigrant family making a new life in France.
(Image courtesy of M2K films)
A French film that ends in a tour-de-force scene, Mother and Son is the work of writer/director Léonor Serraille. This is her second feature following 2017’s Jeune Femme (in which she shared the writing credit with two others, but this time she goes it alone). The previous work marked Serraille as a real talent, but even so the screenplay was a let down as it took on a fresh character in its last quarter which proved less than effective. Similarly, it is the writing that is, at times, the weak point in Mother and Son. In other respects, the film confirms Serraille’s talent. It is worth noting that both of her films contain an outstanding leading performance: in Jeune Femme it was Laetitia Dosch, who makes a cameo appearance in this new work, and here it is the remarkable Annabelle Lengronne.
Lengronne’s role in Mother and Son is indeed that of the mother. She is Rose, who, in 1989 and then in her early thirties, arrives in France in order to start a new life. She comes from the Ivory Coast to take up residence with relatives (Etienne Monoungou and Audrey Kouakou) who live in Paris. Having been married twice (the first husband is dead and the second is no longer talking to her), Rose has four sons: ten-year-old Jean (Sidy Fofana) and five-year-old Ernest (Milan Doucansi) accompany her, but the others have been unable to travel. Mother and Son is divided into three titled sections and the first of these, ‘Rose’, studies how the three new arrivals fare in Paris. Rose who obtains hotel work as a chambermaid is a mother fond of her children but also a woman seeking to find her own way in life. Encouraged by her relatives to consider marrying an admirer who is also an immigrant, Jules César (Jean-Christophe Folly), she insists instead on making her own choice and, by chance or design, seems drawn to white men. Indeed, it is when she accepts the idea of becoming the mistress of one such, a married man named Thierry (Thibaut Evrard), that she moves to his hometown of Rouen, taking the boys with her. Thus we see Rose as a strong independent woman, not without virtues, but who often puts her own interests ahead of those of her two sons.
That is the ground covered in ‘Rose’ and, while the narrative offers no high drama, it is apparent that Serraille believes in the value of her story and in the ability of Annabelle Lengronne who makes Rose a rounded figure in whom we believe totally. She is utterly compelling and, in this segment especially, the editing of Clémence Carré (also a collaborator on Jeune Femme) carries the film forward at a fine pace. The two sections that follow adopt a slightly different focus (the respective titles are ‘Jean’ and ‘Ernest’) and, in addition, jump forward in time. Thus ‘Jean’ shows him at the age of nineteen now played by Stéphane Bak, while the role of Ernest is taken over by Kenzo Sambin. Rather oddly, the opening scenes of the Ernest segment which follows start with footage in which Jean is still a central figure before winding up his part in the tale with climactic events that are described but not shown. Thereafter a further time leap follows and we see Ernest as an adult (Ahmed Sylla) in scenes which find him back in Paris and acting as a teacher whose subject is philosophy.
It is not at all difficult to accept the actors taking the roles of the two sons as being convincing representations of these growing individuals at different ages, but the structure adopted proves to have definite drawbacks. One stems from the fact that Annabelle Lengronne is such a compelling presence that one misses her when Rose becomes largely peripheral in the ‘Jean’ segment. Furthermore, the time jumps leave us having to piece together what has happened, which can be distracting. New characters (not always clearly defined) turn up only to be dropped again. It’s also the case that the few moments where the directorial mode becomes more stylised are ill-fitted with the rest. If the crucial background to all this is the issue of immigrants in a foreign country fitting in or failing to do so, there is also a touch of personal drama here in the way that one son, Jean, seems set from an early age to be a success in contrast to the other, Ernest, who is a less apt student, only to end up the other way round. Here we find the film’s portrayal of Jean’s decline into delinquency lacking the clarity and the detail that would render it powerful.
In the event, it is Ernest’s tale that is by far the more telling. Persuasive scenes of him as a teacher lead on to a final episode in which, having been out of touch with his mother for some time, Rose makes a visit to Paris and the two of them come face-to-face. It helps that of the able supporting cast, Ahmed Sylla, as the adult Ernest, comes closest to matching the vivid qualities that Annabelle Lengronne brings to the role of Rose. Furthermore, the scene between the two of them offers the best writing in the film: if theirs is a confrontation in which anger can come to the surface, the underlying bond between them is no less apparent. Quite apart from Lengronne’s not-to-be-missed performance, this scene is sufficient in itself to make Mother and Son memorable. Hopefully Léonor Serraille’s writing skills will be more consistently effective next time around.
Original title: Un petit frère.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Annabelle Lengronne, Stéphane Bak, Kenzo Sambin, Ahmed Sylla, Sidy Fofana, Milan Doucansi, Audrey Kouakou, Etienne Minoungou, Jean-Christophe Folly, Thibaut Evrard, Angelina Woreth, Majid Mastoura, Rafael Rajabian, Saul Benchetrit, Manon Clavel, Laetitia Dosch.
Dir Léonor Serraille, Pro Sandra da Fonseca, Screenplay Léonor Serraille, Ph Hélène Louvart, Pro Des Marion Burger, Ed Clémence Carré, Costumes Isabelle Pannetier.
Blue Monday Productions/France 3 Cinéma/Canal+/Ciné+/France Télévisions-Picturehouse Entertainment.
117 mins. France. 2022. UK Rel: 30 June 2023. Cert. 12A.
