''Childhoods'' (original title: ''Enfances'') is a 2007 French
anthology film directed by Yann Le Gal,
Isild Le Besco,
Joana Hadjithomas
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige are Lebanese filmmakers and artists. Their work includes feature and documentary films, video and photographic installations, sculpture, performance lectures and texts.
Personal life
Joana Hadjithomas (b ...
,
Khalil Joreige
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige are Lebanese filmmakers and artists. Their work includes feature and documentary films, video and photographic installations, sculpture, performance lectures and texts.
Personal life
Joana Hadjithomas (b ...
,
Ismaël Ferroukhi
Ismaël Ferroukhi (born 26 June 1962) is a French- Moroccan film director and screenwriter.
Ferroukhi was born in Kenitra. He gained exposure with his 1992 short film ''L'Exposé'', which won the Kodak Prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Foll ...
, Corinne Garfin and
Safy Nebbou
Safy Nebbou (born 27 April 1968) is a French actor and director.
Life and career
Nebbou was born on 27 April 1968 in Bayonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France to a German mother and an Algerian father. He is the brother of actor Mehdi Nebbou.
He ...
. Although a French reference gives its running time as 84 minutes, other resources indicate 80 minutes, with the work, in its entirety, composed of six
vignettes, between 10 and 15 minutes in length, each by a different director, depicting formative incidents in the pre-adolescent lives of iconic filmmakers
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
,
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
,
Jacques Tati
Jacques Tati (; born Jacques Tatischeff, ; 9 October 1907 – 5 November 1982) was a French mime, film-maker, actor and screenwriter. In an ''Entertainment Weekly'' poll of the Greatest Movie Directors, he was voted the 46th greatest of all time ...
,
Jean Renoir,
Alfred Hitchcock and
Ingmar Bergman, with each segment structured to resemble its subject's familiar signature style.
Written by Yann Le Gal, the director of the Fritz Lang segment, the project was realized during 2006–07 and premiered in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
at the
Hamburg Film Festival.
Segments
The film's opening vignette, a namesake of the future director's 1948 film, ''
Secret Beyond the Door
''Secret Beyond the Door'' is a 1947 American film noir psychological thriller and a modern updating of the Bluebeard fairytale, directed by Fritz Lang, produced by Lang's Diana Productions, and released by Universal Pictures. The film stars Joan ...
'', takes place in 1900
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, registration_plate = W
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, postal_code =
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, timezone_DST ...
, as Fritz Lang (1890–1976) accidentally discovers, at the age of 10, that his mother who, to spare her children the burden of
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
, had converted to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
that year, is
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish.
The second segment, "The Gaze of a Child", directed by
Isild Le Besco, moves to 1924
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, subdivision_name ...
in depicting a deeply traumatic moment in the young life of Orson Welles (1915–1985), whose beloved mother dies four days after his ninth birthday.
The third story, "Open the Door, Please", directed by
Joana Hadjithomas
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige are Lebanese filmmakers and artists. Their work includes feature and documentary films, video and photographic installations, sculpture, performance lectures and texts.
Personal life
Joana Hadjithomas (b ...
and
Khalil Joreige
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige are Lebanese filmmakers and artists. Their work includes feature and documentary films, video and photographic installations, sculpture, performance lectures and texts.
Personal life
Joana Hadjithomas (b ...
, is set in 1919 France, portraying an incident during the schooldays of Jacques Tati (1907–1982) who, at 12, was 180 cm
early 5' 11" thus distorting the composition of the class photograph being taken with him and his much shorter fellow pupils.
Part four, "The Pair of Shoes", directed by
Ismaël Ferroukhi
Ismaël Ferroukhi (born 26 June 1962) is a French- Moroccan film director and screenwriter.
Ferroukhi was born in Kenitra. He gained exposure with his 1992 short film ''L'Exposé'', which won the Kodak Prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Foll ...
, also set in France, but fourteen years earlier, in 1905, shows Jean Renoir (1894–1979), age 11, vacationing, as usual, at the country estate of his father, renowned painter
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, when an encounter with a slightly older peasant boy opens his eyes to the hidden meanings of life in the country and also teaches him about the unfairness of
social class divisions.
Story number five, "Short Night", directed by Corinne Garfin and set in 1907, selects a moment in the life of 8-year-old
Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980), a sensitive child with an unsympathetic and authoritarian mother, who, awakening in the middle of a dark and terrifying night in the
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
suburb of
Leytonstone
Leytonstone () is an area in east London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local authority district of Greater London. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, ...
, calls out in fright, with no one to answer his cries.
The final tale, "A Birth", directed by Safy Nebbou, takes place in the
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
city of
Uppsala
Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Located north of the c ...
, giving a portrait of
Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007), age 4, traumatized and unsettled while awaiting the 1922 birth of his sister.
Cast
*
Maurice Antoni as
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
*
Maxime Juravliov as
Jacques Tati
Jacques Tati (; born Jacques Tatischeff, ; 9 October 1907 – 5 November 1982) was a French mime, film-maker, actor and screenwriter. In an ''Entertainment Weekly'' poll of the Greatest Movie Directors, he was voted the 46th greatest of all time ...
*
Virgil Leclaire as
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
*
Max Renaudin Pratt as
Ingmar Bergman
*
Elsa Zylberstein
Elsa Zylberstein (born Elsa Florence Zylbersztejn, 16 October 1968) is a French film, TV, and stage actress. After studying drama, Zylberstein began her film career in 1989, and has appeared in more than 60 films. She won the César Award for Be ...
as
Ingmar Bergman's mother
*
Pascal Elso
Pascal Elso is a French actor.
Life
He is actor, comedian, director and acting teacher on several cinema school. He had been choreographer, clown, mime
Filmography
Theater
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elso, Pasca ...
as
Ingmar Bergman's father
*
Anne Benoît as Aline Renoir
*
Julie Gayet
Julie Gayet (; born 3 June 1972) is a French actress and film producer.[< ...]
as
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
's mother
*
Isild Le Besco as
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
's aunt
*
Emmanuelle Bercot
Emmanuelle Bercot (born 6 November 1967) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. Her film '' Clément'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. Her 2013 film '' On My Way'' premiered in competi ...
as
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
's mother
*
Vincent Solignac as
Alfred Hitchcock's father
*
Margot Meynard as
Alfred Hitchcock's mother
*
Clotilde Hesme as Gabrielle
*
Jonathan Joss
Jonathan Joss (born December 22, 1965) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying the voice of John Redcorn from season 2 to 13 of the animated series ''King of the Hill'', replacing the original actor Victor Aaron after his death in 1 ...
as Dolph Lang
Further reading
McNally, James. "Enfances (Childhoods)". ''Toronto Screen Shots'' (28 March 2009) Review of film screening at Toronto CineFranco Film Festival (with poster and link to trailer)Tootpadu. "Enfances". Review of 7 May 2008 screening in France at Club Marbeuf 'in French''
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Childhoods
2000s French-language films
French biographical drama films
French anthology films
2007 films
2007 biographical drama films
Films set in the 1900s
Films set in 1924
Films set in 1919
Films about film directors and producers
Films about children
Films directed by Safy Nebbou
2007 drama films
2000s French films