My Son (2006)

Believable heart wrenching horrible unhealthy story about a mother too much in love with her son, smothering him with over-protection, and going even further. 12 year old Julien had his mother as best friend, or rather the opposite. He is his mother's best friend. She does not know when to let go, and she does not know when to give him the needed space, not understanding growing up and going into puberty, and the trauma the boy feels by this.Extremely well played by the two main persons. The mother is a mother from hell, played by a frightening Nathalie Baye. The father is ignorant to what goes on, being distant as many are. Julien, brilliantly played by Victor Sevaux, tries all he can to get away from home for a day or two, trying to make his mother love him less. It's painful to watch. When his sisters addresses that Julien is not happy and well, she is ignored.When mother finds a love letter to her son in the mail from his girlfriend Alice, she opens it with no hesitation, and reacts as jealous as it's possible to do. The sister tells, and he finds the letter shred to pieces in the junk. He's not allowed to do anything without the mother approving and telling in beforehand. And when he decides to show appreciation, she reacts like a psycho.But after a while Julien is driven into a corner, and decides to act...

12-year-old Julien lives with his mother, father and sister in a French suburb. His strict activity calendar consist of school, piano lessons with his grandmother, dancing hours with his mother, soccer practice with the boys and homework. His sister studies, his mother is a housewife and his father comes home from work late at night. Besides his regular routines Julien spends time with his girlfriend Alice, but his routine based days are starting to wear him down, and when his mother finds out that his grades are decreasing she demands better results from her son. Julien tries to please his mother, but is unable to meet her demands. In time she becomes controlling, questions everything he does and forces him to lie to his friends so that she can spend more time with him. Julien feels trapped in his own home and decides to ignore his mother's demands. His mother is broken by her sons disobedience and starts humiliating her son. Julien's silent and distant father shows him little interest and attention, has no idea about what is happening and lives on like everything is perfectly alright. Julien continues to ignore his mothers demands, but doesn't realize the consequences of his actions. His mother reveals him again, and this time she deprives him of all social interaction with others. She can't tolerate his behavior and begins to abuse him mentally and physically. Julien is isolated in his home and his mental state is regressing.Martial Fougeron's steady, structural and stylistically directed psychological drama about child upbringing, is narrated mostly from the main character's point of view and is a dense and tense study of character of a tyrannical mother and her victimized son which is superbly acted by the whole ensemble, and especially by veteran actress Nathalie Baye as the mother and Victor Sévaux in his debut feature film role as the son. This distinctly photographed chamber piece where the dialog creates as much tension as the subtle editing, manages to maintain a persistent claustrophobic and foreboding atmosphere and is a highly concentrated thriller about a shattered French upper class family.

A mother's love for a son that is growing up too fast before her eyes and her refusal to admit to the fact, is something no one is prepared for, yet, the woman at the center of this story decided to keep Julien all for herself. There are hints that something more sinister is going on in this strange relationship, or even incest, when the mother refuses to let her son have a normal life.Julien, a straight A student, starts losing his interest in school, as well as in playing the piano. His grandmother has taught him from the beginning; he shows talent for playing the instrument, but he refuses to go on. His grades begin to plunge, something of concern for his teacher at the high school he attends. Julien's father, at the same time, is too preoccupied to see what is happening to the young man.At the same time, this mother instead of showing her maternal love, displays a cruelty like we haven't seen in films in quite a while. The relationship, as it is, can't go on like this. The father of Julien doesn't seem to realize what is going on, or perhaps he refuses to believe what her daughter points out to him. The situation, we know, can't stay the way it is because of its foundation. This mother doesn't want to let go and her love for Julien turns into a tragedy for the whole family.We watched this film on cable recently. It probably didn't get an American release based on the contents, but who knows if it ever seen in this country. Directed with style by Martial Fougeron, who co-wrote the script with Florence Eleakim, this is a disturbing film, clearly not targeted for the general public. A Belgian-French co-production, the film surprises because of the way the creators have delved under the characters to show a different kind of relationship between a mother and a son like it has not been seen in a while.Natalie Baye, a French actress, proved a surprise in her take of the mother. Ms. Baye, who has spent her life in front of a camera, shows to be a natural for the woman on the screen. Ms. Baye shows an uncanny intelligence in her performance that is never a caricature of the tormented soul she is supposed to be. Also notable, the young actor Victor Sevaux, whose luminous presence makes Julien comes across as perhaps he was supposed to have been this boy the brilliant team behind this film had in mind. Oliver Gourmet, Emmanuelle Riva, and Marie Kremer, are also seen in supporting roles.Take a chance in watching this film because Martial Fougeron and Natalie Baye make a wonderful contribution to this film that will be hard to forget.

Turning the page from childhood into adolescence, Julien seems to be a very happy child with lots of things to do. A straight 20 (that's A) student, a football player in the team that is preparing its next championship, a dedicated pupil of his own granny who teaches him piano and loves him dearly; a happy child starting a relationship with a girl at school.With passionate and memorable performances of all the cast, definitely Nathalie Baye leads the pack with a terrific impersonation of Julien's mother. A pity this time Olivier Gourmet had a small but very effective role as the father. Marie Kremer as Julien's sister is fantastic, but Victor Sévaux as Julien is one of the best roles played by a child I've ever seen. He reminded me the amazing character of Ken Loach's "Kes" or the powerful performance of Christian Bale in "The Empire of the Sun", or, maybe closer in time, Juanjo Ballesta in "El Bola", a film that deals with the subject matter of Mon Fils à Moi.The script is written in the same vein as some of the Dardenne's brothers films: fast cuts into expressions that tell even the text in the mind of the characters. Mme. Baye's character is mesmerising, to say the least. One difficult role to play as a deranged over-protecting mother that relies in her power to determine her son's fate. Absolutely diabolical and very disturbing.This is a film that has the power of moving every fibre in your mind and heart, even physically. There is one scene of incredible tension that leads to the not so expected end where you will feel how your heart-rate increases dramatically.Shot with lots of natural light and intelligent camera angles and movements, it never lets you go. A beautiful, difficult to watch film that will stay with you for a long time... and I mean it, it's just too hard to see when love is turned into slavery and that slavery is justified as love.These are the kind of films that have a brave approach to difficult subjects and give you the opportunity to discuss it many times.