''Toto the Hero'' (french: Toto le héros) is a 1991 Belgian film (co-produced with France and Germany) by Belgian

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

Jaco Van Dormael Jaco Van Dormael (born 9 February 1957) is a Belgian film director, screenwriter and playwright. His films especially focus on a respectful and sympathetic portrayal of people with mental and physical disabilities. Van Dormael spent his childh ...

. It won the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991, and the

César Award for Best Foreign Film This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Foreign Film (french: César du meilleur film étranger). Winners and nominees 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Awards by nation Notes See also *Lumières A ...

in 1992. The film was selected as the Belgian entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the 64th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Plot

Ostensibly set in the near future, the film tells the life story of an elderly man named Thomas Van Hasebroeck (who has dubbed himself Toto, after a childhood fantasy), looking back on his ordinary, apparently uneventful life in a complex mosaic of flashbacks, interspersed with

fantasies Fantasy is a genre of fiction. Fantasy, Fantasie, or Fantasies may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Fantasia (music), a free-form musical composition * ''Fantasie'' (Widmann), a 1993 composition for solo clarinet by Jörg Widmann * ...

about how events might have turned out differently. It is not always possible to tell the difference between embellished or manufactured memories and fantasies, as Thomas is a very unreliable narrator, but some scenes (such as the narrative thread that features Toto as a secret agent) are definitely fantasized. Thomas firmly believes his life to have been "stolen" from him by Alfred Kant, born at the same time as Thomas, who Thomas believes was inadvertently switched with himself as a baby (characteristically, the film remains ambiguous as to whether this substitution ever actually happened, with Thomas' only substantiation being his apparent vivid memory of the day he was born). Thomas' jealousy of Alfred has overshadowed all his life, often with tragic consequences for his loved ones, and he is plotting revenge. Throughout most of the film, his intended revenge takes the shape of a plot to kill Alfred, but in the end Thomas finds a more creative and surprising way to "take back" his life.

Cast

Michel Bouquet Michel Bouquet (6 November 1925 – 13 April 2022) was a French stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1947 to 2020. He won the Best Actor European Film Award for '' Toto the Hero'' in 1991 and two Best Actor Césars fo ...

as Thomas (old man) *

Jo De Backer Jo, jo, JO, or J.O. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Jo'' (film), a 1972 French comedy * ''Jo'' (TV series), a French TV series *"Jo", a song by Goldfrapp from ''Tales of Us'' *"Jo", a song by Mr. Oizo from ''Lambs Anger'' * Jo a fictio ...

as Thomas (adult) *

Thomas Godet Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

as Thomas (child) *

Gisela Uhlen Gisela Uhlen (16 May 1919 – 16 January 2007) was a German film actress and occasional screen writer. Biography Uhlen was born Gisela Friedlinde Schreck (German national library entry) in Leipzig, Germany as fourth child of Luise Frieda and ...

as Evelyne (old woman) * Mireille Perrier as Evelyne (young woman) *

Sandrine Blancke Sandrine Blancke (born 6 November 1978) is a Belgium French actress. She started her acting career as a child actor at the age of 13 in the 1991 film ''Toto le héros''. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 1st Magritte Awards. ...

as Alice * Michel Robin as Alfred (old's voice) *

Peter Böhlke Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

as Alfred (old man) *

Didier Ferney __NOTOC__ Didier is a French masculine given name and surname common throughout the Romance languages. It comes from the Ancient Roman names Didius and Desiderius. During the 5th century AD, with the Christianisation of ancient pagan names, it h ...

as Alfred (adult) *

Hugo Harold Harrison Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on a ...

as Alfred (child) *

Fabienne Loriaux Fabienne is a feminine French and English given name. Notable people with the name include: * Fabienne André (born 1996), British athlete * Fabienne Dufour (born 1981), Belgian swimmer * Fabienne Feraez (born 1976), Beninese sprinter * Fabienne ...

as Thomas' Mother * Klaus Schindler as Thomas' Father *

Pascal Duquenne Pascal Duquenne (born 8 August 1970) is a Belgian actor. He shared the Best Actor Award in the 1996 Cannes Film Festival for his performance as Georges in the movie '' The Eighth Day'', with Daniel Auteuil, who played Harry. He lives in Brussels ...

as Celestin (adult) * Karim Moussati as Celestin (child) *

Didier De Neck __NOTOC__ Didier is a French masculine given name and surname common throughout the Romance languages. It comes from the Ancient Roman names Didius and Desiderius. During the 5th century AD, with the Christianisation of ancient pagan names, it ha ...

as Mr. Kant * Christine Smeysters as Mrs. Kant *

Jo Deseure Jo Deseure is a Belgian stage and film actress. After developing an interest in acting, Deseure enrolled at the Institut Supérieur des Arts in Brussels and graduated from there in 1984. She later began working in theatre and became a regular ...

as Sales Woman *

Bouli Lanners Philippe "Bouli" Lanners (born 20 May 1965) is a Belgian actor, author and film director. His film '' The Giants'' was nominated for twelve Magritte Awards, winning five, including Best Film and Best Director. Biography Lanners was born on 20 ...

as Gangster

Release

The film is available on DVD in the UK and mainland Europe. It was released on Blu-Ray in the UK and United States in August 2020 by

Arrow Academy Arrow Films is a British independent film distributor and restorer specialising in world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films. It sells Ultra HD Blu-rays, Blu-rays and DVDs online, and also operates its own subscription video on-dema ...

, with documentaries on the making of the film ('Memories of Hero') and on François Schuiten ('François Schuiten, Architect of an Unfinished Dream').

Reception

Vincent Canby gave the film an enthusiastic review in ''The New York Times'', calling it "an enormously witty, bittersweet comedy" that "is both shocking and elegiacal." He wrote that "the film has the density of a fine short story, written by a master who somehow manages to create a novel-sized world through an uncanny command of ellipsis" and praised "Van Dormael's extraordinary gift for the simultaneous expression of utterly contradictory emotions." ''Variety'' described the film as "a winning blend of kid's fantasy and adult comedy that's as fresh as a hot croissant." ''Time Out'' called it "an immensely vibrant, inventive, compassionate movie", and added that though Van Dormael has "an engagingly witty eye for the absurd", he has rooted his film "in ''emotional'' reality, so that Thomas' life, loves, desires and anxieties take on great poignancy."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

admitted it was "an interesting film", and remarked that he would have liked it more "if it had been more bitter and unforgiving; if someone like Bunuel had directed it". On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91%, based on 11 reviews, and an average rating of 7.7/10.

References

External links

*
TOTO LES HEROS
at Cannes Film Festival {{DEFAULTSORT:Toto Le Heros 1991 films Belgian comedy-drama films Best Foreign Film César Award winners European Film Awards winners (films) 1990s French-language films Films directed by Jaco Van Dormael Films shot in Brussels Caméra d'Or winners 1991 directorial debut films French-language Belgian films