Writer-director Lionel Baier's LA CACHE is by turns a delightful, whimsical comedy and an increasingly profound discourse on trauma and co-dependence. Based on the memoir by artist Christophe Boltanski, it tells the story of a multi-generational family living in a ramshackle apartment in central Paris during "les evenements de 1968" with flashbacks to 1942.
The family is led by the indomitable matriarch known as The Hinterland, played beautifully by the iconic Liliane Rovere. She smokes like a chimney, self-mythologises her childhood in Odessa, and her many lovers while a dancer in a Ballets-Russe style company. She casually asks her young great-grandson if he wants a cigarette; flips the bird to her stuck up neighbours; and feeds her grandchildren as a mother hen.
Next we have grandma and grandpa - the former a fearless social documentarian who drives the family around in her crazy Citroen - the latter an anxious and kindly doctor.
And then we have their three sons - a struggling artist - an academic - and an activist journalist - who is himself father to the young charismatic kid through whose eyes we see much of the early parts of film.
For the first half hour, LA CACHE plays like a cross between THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS and a Michel Gondry film. Full of marvellous production period detail, zany costumes, zanier characters, all with their own particular neuroses. Just as I was starting to tire of its arch style, the film pivoted to something darker and more complex, a turn similar in itself to Wes Anderson's greatest film, GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.
We realise that grandpa isn't just anxious, he has PTSD from his experiences in WW1 and WW2. We realise that the kids aren't just co-dependent in their reluctance to leave their familial enclave, but find in it a genuine refuge and a literal safe house. We realise innocent little posters telling residents not to play ball in the courtyard can soon escalate into far more sinister interdictions. And that snobbish neighbours can have far more sinister intentions.
I loved the careful and deliberate layering of motifs and emotions building to two pivotal scenes - one in which we flashback to a husband and wife in 1942 - and one in which grandpa explains to a surprise guest what his words meant to him in that dark time. It takes real chutzpah to try and shift tone from comedy to profundity but I feel that Lionel Baier absolutely pulls it off. Indeed the more I think about this film, the more genuine pathos I find in it, and the more hilarious lines I remember. If you have watched it, just remember, "Cuba does not yet have this technology"!
LA CACHE has a running time of 90 minutes and had its world premiere today at the Berlin Film Festival.
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