La classe de neige (1998) Reviews

• And let the devil wake from his dream.

  dbdumonteil2003-10-08

  Simply ,"la classe de neige" is Claude Miller's best work since "la meilleure façon de marcher" (1975,his debut).These works comprise intriguing similarities: both take place in a children community.The first movie,which featured the excellent Patrick Bouchitey and Patrick Dewaere,focused on two camp counselors ,and the dark side of their minds .Bouchitey's devils only woke up at night ,when he dressed up as a woman.His relationship with Dewaere was frighteningly intense and culminated in a violent scene in which the transvestite forced his pal to dance.Miller's sophomore effort "dites-lui que je l'aime" tackled deviancy again but he cheapened Patricia Highsmith's first-class thriller.Since,Miller made quite entertaining works ("garde à vue" which was remade as "under suspicion" ),endearing ones ("l'effrontée") ,and also pretentious ones ("mortelle randonnée" which was remade too).But he was never again able to equal his sensational first work,which seems as strong as it was a quarter of century ago. But in 1998,he really outdid himself,and gave a stunning work ,the first to be on a par with "la meilleure façon de marcher".Should you give another title to "la classe de neige'" ,it could be " cries and whispers" .The title is incredibly trite "skiing with the school" and reveals none of the horrors the movie depicts. Nicolas is a perturbed child probably because he's poisoned with protection by an omnipresent father;but it's not that much simple: the scene at the swimming pool shows another side of this monstrous daddy.The parents ' gathering before the class leaves for the mountains is realist to the core:I organized myself a lot of "classes de neige" and I can say I've met a lot of parents who fret about their dear little ones .Sometimes they refuse to sever the umbilical cord and the child -most of the time very disappointed- stays home. Whispers:Nicolas lives in his own world where his demons never leaves him alone.His only moments of peace occur when he confides to his teacher,Miss Grimm (what a name!)-see how he refuses to talk to his mother on the phone -,or to the young man to whom he says :"when you think too hard about something,does IT happen"?,scary ,isn't it?).He finds a pal but the secrets he exchanges with him are so morbid and so terrifying it cannot bring him any help.Most of the time,the adults whisper behind closed doors,the gendarmes outside the bus,the teachers in their office. Cries:we never see Nicolas scream, or even cry.His mind creates monsters ,at night when his nightmares come to visit him -these scenes make the audience think of an horror movie,which Claude Miller's work is not.He managed to blend dream and reality in such a subtle way that it's sometimes hard to tell them apart;take the central scene which climaxes the movie:Nicholas is out in the cold ,the snow's falling,and he cannot open the house's door.Then begins a series of dreams which show a child's fear of dying as never before.In the daylight,terrors do not fade away:Nicolas turns the TV screen into a mirror of his own horrible visions-this is not as strong as the nightmares scenes ,though,since this device has been used before-. Claude Miller does not do what the audience expects:a Hollywoodian treatment would have solved the problems ,with a family happy again and plenty of violins in the background.There's an extremely moving scene :on the highway,in the restaurant ,the boy sees a young mom change her baby's diaper,then the proud couple leaves the place,as Nicolas' s eyes catch what happiness may look like.The ending will leave you completely numb:you are in front of a huge hole ,you do not know exactly what happened .It's perhaps even worse than you think it is. A black fairy tale revisited by Bruno Bettelheim,a psychological drama, a thriller,"la classe de neige" is all this and so much more. Emmanuel Carrière's eponymous book is highly recommended.

• Nicely modulated mood piece, if not quite as disturbing as the book

  Chris Knipp2005-08-25

  Screenplay coauthored by Miller and Emmanuel Carrière from the latter's successful and disquieting little mystery-thriller novel about an overprotected, highly sensitive boy whose dreams and fantasies of danger while on a stay in the mountains with his school may or may not presage real events. Such a movie has plusses and minuses: it allows the filmmakers to bring the feverish visions of young Nicolas (Clément ven den Bergh) to vivid life, but it somewhat undermines the sense of uncertainty about what is real or imagined that makes the book effective. The boy is stronger than I imagined him reading the story. Let's say that the actor puts on a face of shyness and gloom but I don't quite believe it. Still, as a viewer commented on the French website Allociné, "I feel this film does not betray the book." Apparently not shown widely or at all in the US. Beautifully done with excellent restraint, true to the book's muted style, a minor triumph for the underwhelming Miller, whose last admired film was The Little Thief/La petite voleuse with Charlotte Gainsbourg in 1988. Tied for Jury Prize at Cannes, nominated for Golden Palm. I wanted to see this because I'd read the book. Easy French. This brought it all back, but wasn't quite as disturbing because you know the fantasies are fantasies, every time. In the book it's from the boy's point of view and you aren't always so sure. Lots of closeups of ven den Bergh's face don't make us see entirely through his eyes. It's all more externalized. Still, a nicely modulated mood piece, an excellent evocation of the darker side of childhood imagination. It's not so easy to be a kid. We forget that sometimes.

• It's a dark comedy, not a psychology riddle or a thriller

  jm107012012-04-03

  I agree with most other reviewers in liking this movie, but I disagree with almost everything they say about it. First of all, it is not hard to follow, nor is it at all hard to tell what is real and what is not. The plot is actually fairly simple, and warning that it is so complex that you have to watch it twice and answer half a dozen or more convoluted questions before you get it is absurd. It's also absurd to imply that you have to understand Freudian psychobabble to understand this movie. I don't know why people think they have to make a movie sound so hard to watch when it is not hard to watch at all. I also disagree that this is a sad, solemn movie, and that there's no humor in it. The humor is dark humor (very dark), but there's a good bit of it, as when Nicolas imagines making out with the teacher and when the hooded terrorists swarm over the school mowing everybody down with machine guns while Nicolas calmly eats food the other kids have left behind in panic. Even the scars the camera zooms in on so often and Nic's father's antics and horror stories about organ pirates are funny. It's macabre, but it's very funny. And the twist at the end? What twist? The end was obvious almost from the beginning of the movie. This is a movie, not a psychology test or an inscrutable riddle or even much of a thriller. It's a very smart, very dark comedy about children and crazy parents. In trying to over-analyze it, people miss its fun. Lighten up and enjoy it.

• Grant us your peace-- a sensitive look at an anxious child

  billheron532010-10-12

  Nicolas's father is overprotective beyond reason. He asks his son's teacher what guarantee she can give that the children will be safe on the planned trip to an outdoor education centre. Miss Grimm responds matter-of-factly that there is "nothing," and the father announces that he will drive Nicolas himself. This father also allows his sons to watch a news item about a horrible bus accident. He tells Nicolas a gruesome story about organ traffickers to explain why he will not leave the little brother in the care of a stranger. He has recently attempted suicide by slitting his wrists, and burdens Nicolas with the torments of his mental imbalance. Nicolas is a nervous wreck as a result. He is anxious, has nightmares, and wets the bed. Patrick, the instructor at the outdoor ed. centre, recognizes him as a worrier, but also "a dreamer." Nicolas also has a skewed attitude to his own body. He should be fascinated by the impending changes of puberty, but he does not understand a classmate's ribald riddle, and he thinks he's done something "very bad" when he has a "wet dream." During a relaxation exercise, "getting to know his body" brings a series of nightmarish thoughts. His interest in the anatomy booklet he gets with gas station coupons is part of what seems to be a morbid obsession. His wondering why his father doesn't return with his forgotten bag leads to visions of a gruesome accident. Nicolas spends so much time worrying about what terrible things could occur that he has begun to wonder if his "thinking hard" about them can cause them to actually happen. At the outdoor ed. centre Nicolas has something of a breakthrough. The need to borrow pyjamas leads to overtures of friendship from Hodkann, the class tearaway. His nightmare of organ traffickers shooting all the students turns into a dream of rescuing and protecting Hodkann. The nightmare of seeing his little brother kidnapped by organ traffickers turns into a dream of sharing with Hodkann the thrill of the roller coaster. Nicolas also gets to spend some time with Patrick, a teacher who is easygoing and fun. Their shopping trip to buy clothes for Nicolas is the first time he smiles. Hodkann is fascinated by the idea that Nicolas is a sleepwalker. Nicolas satisfies that curiosity by spinning a tale of seeing organ traffickers outside, and embellishes it with the claim that his father is tailing them, waiting for an opportunity to "settle the score" of the theft of the little brother's kidney. But Hodkann, totally believing, connects this with the disappearance and murder of a local boy. He reports the story to the police, thinking that he is ensuring the protection of Nicolas's father. When he hears this, Nicolas faints, thinking he is going to be in deep trouble for misleading the police during a murder inquiry. Then he is told there is "a problem at home," and that he is to be driven back by Patrick. On the way, he sees a television report of his father's arrest, and he realizes that it is his father who is in deep trouble. In the middle of all this, he sees a beautiful young mother cooing to her baby on a change table. His face takes on a tranquil look, and he exchanges a tender smile with the mother. At this point his string bracelet falls away, which the teachers had told him would be when his wish would be granted. The "Agnus Dei" from Rossini's Petite Messe Solonelle, which has been used repeatedly during the film, plays to the end, repeating at last the "Dona nobis pacem," or "Grant us your peace." Nicolas's wish may have been to be rid of his father— a wish Miss Grimm actually suggests, as a joke. Perhaps his wish was simply to be at peace— free of anxiety and nightmarish thoughts— and he now feels able to cope with his worries and can return home and ring his doorbell and face whatever awaits there. The film ends, though, with Hodkann. Whenever he has made a friendly gesture towards Nicolas, the teachers have suspected he was setting up a prank. At the end, he is summoned to the teachers' office, and shown the news item of Nicolas's father in police custody. They expect him to be sobered by the serious consequences of what they assume is a lie he has told. But he has been misunderstood again. He stares at the television, confused, dismayed, in shock. The "Agnus Dei" plays during the credits over an aerial shot of a desolate winter forest, perhaps suggesting the ultimately isolated state of a person's inner life.

• Thrilling moments that kept me glued to the screen.

  raymond-152000-06-24

  There are both problem children and problem parents. In this TV movie Nicolas has an over-protective father who will not allow his son to ride on the school bus on their holiday excursion to the mountains. He explains that there are criminals around who kidnap children from side-walks, playgrounds etc. Nicolas being a sensitive child elaborates on his father's fears and has regular bouts of day-dreaming as well as horrific nightmares. This makes interesting entertainment. I like the intercutting of dreams and reality. The horror mounts from scene to scene in a confusing mixture. Nicolas confides to his friend Hodkann that organised criminals pounce on children and cut out their kidneys and livers in mobile hospitals. Sad-faced Nicolas is convincing as the imaginative child. He tells Hodkann that he is an informer and that he helps his father in seeking out these traffickers in human organs. Nicolas also reads horror stories at bed-time. "The Monkey's Paw" scene is a brilliant piece of technical manipulation. Nicolas asks his tutor if it is possible to make things happen just by thinking hard enough about them. This theme is pursued in many scenes where Nicolas manipulates scenes on the television screen e.g. he imagines his father in an automobile accident. I have the feeling that Nicolas is a really mixed up kid and his psychological problems result in worrying bed-wettings. This is alluded to constantly. Clement van der Bergh with his sad and unsmiling face is admirable as young Nicolas, and in contrast we have his happy-go-lucky friend Hodkann in constant awe of Nicolas's imaginative stories. The film centres about their friendship and their adventures. Their warm relationship is convincing. An early scene (actually a nightmare) shows an assassination of virtually everyone by terrorists who attack the mountain lodge. Yes, it's an exciting film that keeps you awake to the end.