(I clicked the spoiler button but this will probably not ruin the movie & might help.) I have just watched this movie on TV and it is an interesting change from the usual fare. By no means a great movie nevertheless it has specialist interest and a particular feel—though perhaps falling short of what the director was aiming for. As it happens I also just read (or re-read) Mort Rosenblum's Secret Life of the Seine, his description of the river, its history and the commercial bargees that used to dominate it. (Rosenblum was editor of IHT and lives aboard a boat moored in central Paris.) It is kind of a heist movie (of Manet's painting La Blonde aux Sens Nu, now in the Musee d'Orsay), family drama, romance and bargee's tough life in the modern world. The cinematography is great though it often resembles something out of the 70s (which is probably fair verisimilitude for the life of bargees today) when their way of life began to fade away. The older (Julien, twenty-something) and younger (Louis, 14 y) brothers live and work aboard their steel barge that is mostly used to transport sand, gravel or maybe wheat. Their brute of a father lies dying in hospital refusing to sign over the boat to the elder son.
It is a standard 38 metre Freycinet steel barge (a peniche) named Styx. Because barging is barely viable these days many of these peniches end up as steel scrap or some are converted into luxury private floating homes or hotels. And this movie, perhaps incidentally, shows you why. The opening scene and the only part set in Paris other than a few minutes at the very end, shows the City of Light from an angle most people never see, but no less enchanting. Being almost penniless since their father got sick and being unable to do commercial jobs without his signature, the older brother hatches a plot to steal the painting; almost casually Louis strolls into the museum and walks out with it (not as far fetched I suppose given how many famous paintings have been taken this way) but is observed by the girl guard Rosalie (Vahina Giocante, who happens to look like the girl in the painting, bien sur) who chases him back to the boat where older brother kidnaps her. They make their getaway—on the barge at 6 km per hour up the Seine! You can guess where it goes from there.
For those of us besotted with the canals of France their wanderings east of Paris on the Marne river and canals is totally authentic, and beautiful, again in a way most people will not have seen. They stop at an old vine-covered house on the river which itself was subject of a painting by Manet (it might be intended to be the Ile d'Amore a legendary bargees hideaway); the old crones who live there have copies of Manet's paintings and Rosalie cleverly swaps the fake for the real La Blonde, to protect it. As in any heist movie lots of things go wrong, Julien gets almost beaten to death by thugs, Rosalie saves Louis from other thugs etc but it is all more or less resolved—though again perhaps not entirely convincingly. Including, I believe, the issue of inheritance of the boat when the father dies (hint: French law does not allow parents to disinherit their offspring but revealed is a reason why the father only beat up the older brother) but with a twist. Reviewers do not give it a high rating but I PVR'd it and will watch it again as I suspect it will repay on repeat.
It is a standard 38 metre Freycinet steel barge (a peniche) named Styx. Because barging is barely viable these days many of these peniches end up as steel scrap or some are converted into luxury private floating homes or hotels. And this movie, perhaps incidentally, shows you why. The opening scene and the only part set in Paris other than a few minutes at the very end, shows the City of Light from an angle most people never see, but no less enchanting. Being almost penniless since their father got sick and being unable to do commercial jobs without his signature, the older brother hatches a plot to steal the painting; almost casually Louis strolls into the museum and walks out with it (not as far fetched I suppose given how many famous paintings have been taken this way) but is observed by the girl guard Rosalie (Vahina Giocante, who happens to look like the girl in the painting, bien sur) who chases him back to the boat where older brother kidnaps her. They make their getaway—on the barge at 6 km per hour up the Seine! You can guess where it goes from there.
For those of us besotted with the canals of France their wanderings east of Paris on the Marne river and canals is totally authentic, and beautiful, again in a way most people will not have seen. They stop at an old vine-covered house on the river which itself was subject of a painting by Manet (it might be intended to be the Ile d'Amore a legendary bargees hideaway); the old crones who live there have copies of Manet's paintings and Rosalie cleverly swaps the fake for the real La Blonde, to protect it. As in any heist movie lots of things go wrong, Julien gets almost beaten to death by thugs, Rosalie saves Louis from other thugs etc but it is all more or less resolved—though again perhaps not entirely convincingly. Including, I believe, the issue of inheritance of the boat when the father dies (hint: French law does not allow parents to disinherit their offspring but revealed is a reason why the father only beat up the older brother) but with a twist. Reviewers do not give it a high rating but I PVR'd it and will watch it again as I suspect it will repay on repeat.