Michel D'Auber

On Tuesday, November 13, 2007, I went to see the film Michel D'Auber.

This is a French film about a foster family adopting an Algerian child in about 1960, because of the instability and rioting in Algeria. The father sends his two children into foster care, because he could not care for them full time, as he needed to work in a factory for about twelve hours a day, and the mother is sick in the hospital with leukemia.

The younger brother, who's named Michel (formerly Massaoud) by his foster family, because they didn't want him to face harassment in their village about being Algerian. This doesn't really succeed, however, as pretty much everyone in the town/village knew about him being Algerian... It's because his big brother couldn't stand being on a farm... Granted of course, the bigger brother, got the blunt end of the stick, since he got sent to work as a farm hand, and the little brother got sent to school, with a name change and everything. He even got his hair dyed.

The older brother always thought about escaping, and didn't listen to his father, when he told him that "When the situation is better, I will come back for you."

The story is mostly based upon the family's growing affection for this child, along with twists and turns... The father's unfaithfulness (father played by Gerard Depardieu), and the mother's unwilling journey into unfaithfulness as well (mother played by Nathalie Baye), as she falls for and has a fling with the school teacher.

There was also the gardener, whose name is Paul, and who looked like the French version of the Trailer Park boy who had the bottle pop glasses. * shudder *

The movie was funny, and it had warm fuzzy moments. One scene was very emotionally powerful, and it made me shed a few tears. But I didn't cry that much.