The Log (1999) User Reviews

Buche de Noel

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 1 September 2005]

Danielle Thompson has written a lot for the cinema. Some of her best efforts have been "La Reine Margot", "Le cerveau", and "Cousin, cousine", among others. Ms. Thompson, whose first directorial job this is, wanted, perhaps, to give her public a good dramatic comedy when she undertook this project. The results are somewhat pleasing.

The story centers about three sisters that are as different from one another as they are from their mother. Louba, Sonia and Milla have gone to have their own lives, but when they are reunited on December 20th, just before Christmas, they show they care for one another in more ways than we realize.

Sabina Azema, Emmanuelle Beart and Charlotte Gainsbourg play the three siblings with style. The lovely Francoise Fabian is seen as their mother. Also in the cast, Claude Rich and the director's son, Christopher Thompson.

Ms. Thompson gives us a different take on Christmas, something we don't often see on the screen.

How do you say "White Christmas" in French?

[Red-125 · 7/10 · 1 January 2003]

Only a French director would begin a Christmas movie with a funeral.

This film, with its American Christmas song sound-track, is difficult to describe. It requires intense concentration to remember who is married to whom, who is related to whom, who has had an affair with whom, etc. (In fact, I am glad my wife and I saw this movie on VHS--we could stop it every so often and say, "Now which husband/daughter/lover/ wife is that?")

The good news is that there is some outstanding acting by skilled French actors--Sabine Azéma, Emmanuelle Béart, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Claude Rich, and especially Françoise Fabian.

The biggest problem I had with this film--other than sorting out the various pairings-- was that not one couple had a simple, loving, faithful relationship. Surely--even in France--a family would contain two people who love each other, are married, and do not cheat.

If you accept adultery as a part of everyone's life, this movie makes sense. If you don't accept this, the plot grows tedious.

This film is worth seeing for the acting, but not worth a special effort or special trip.

P.S. Surprisingly, the director has chosen to play down the appearance of Emmanuelle Béart. In most films, she is obviously incredibly beautiful. In this ensemble film, Béart is portrayed as attractive, but no more so than the other actors. Whether this concept is a good one or a bad one will depend on your point of view.

Your own Christmas movie

[pierfconsa · 5 January 2002]

I was just reading other comments made about this movie, and they were so negative that made me want to try and say a couple of words to say that the movie is great, entertaining, interesting, funny, original. A perfect plot, mastered with capacity and played at perfection. If you want to see a movie that shows how the magic of life beats the magic of christmas, go to see the movie, and be ready to face entangled plots of lives humoristically interwined.

About as funny and uplifting as cancer. I truly hated this film.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 15 November 2013]

If you hate Christmas and think that love and family are as fleeting as the wind, then I sure have a recommendation for you--"La Bûche". It's thoroughly unpleasant and a cynic's idea of comedy. I noticed other reviewers generally loved this film, though I really have no idea why. I'd rather shove my head into a gas oven than see this one again!!

The film begins at a funeral. Yvette's husband has died and her three daughters from a previous marriage have arrived at the graveside to be with her. Over the course of the film, you learn that EVERYONE in the film--not just Yvette and her family but EVERYONE is selfish, cheats on their spouses and are emotional messes. All are self-involved and foolish and for some reason with this death and Christmas just a few days away, folks start to reminisce--though for the most part, what they look back on was only temporary and a charade. Now here's the weird part--no one takes relationships seriously in this film and everyone is self-absorbed, yet it is somehow supposed to be funny and uplifting! What's funny and uplifting about a woman who has been having an affair with a married man for 12 years and is now pregnant (while the man's wife is ALSO pregnant)? What's funny and uplifting about a divorced couple who finally sit down together after decades of animosity and discuss all the affairs they had while they were married? And, what's funny and uplifting about a couple who appear happy, successful and have a young child--yet are splitting up at Christmas? The only positive thing I can say about this film is that the acting was very good. The story, on the other hand, is only enjoyable if you hate family, hate Christmas and assume everyone is a cheat.

God bless us, everyone!

"Three Sisters" celebrate Christmas in Paris or Anton Chekhov would've smiled:

[Galina_movie_fan · 9/10 · 5 December 2006]

Three sisters, the Parisians with the sweet Russian names, Sonya, Lyuba and Milla and their parents who have been divorced for 25 years but still have a lot to say to each other are in the center of this charming, clever, funny, touching and poignant dramedy that takes place one year in Paris from December 20 till Christmas Eve. It will start with the funeral and it will end with the Christmas party in which all members of this dysfunctional family participate but many events will happen before the party, important decisions will be taken, life-changing revelations will occur and all of it with the background of incredible Paris decorated for Christmas and the sound of beloved Christmas songs and some unforgettable Russian and Jewish songs. Danièle Thompson directed a marvelous movie for which she and her son Christian (who also stars) wrote a script. Three beautiful and talented actresses play the sisters. Sabine Azéma is Lyuba, the older of the three (the songs that she performers in a Russian cabaret almost reduce me to tears), Emmanuelle Béart is Sonya, the only one of the sisters who seems to have found happiness in her picture perfect family life but there is more than meets the eye. Charlotte Gainsbourg (the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, a very talented young actress whom I like in everything I've seen her) is Milla, the youngest sister, a brilliant computer programmer, the rebel and the loner who spends all her time at work.

Not worth it...

[sczopek · 4/10 · 26 November 1999]

Anyone expecting a bright clever and fresh comedy here will be seriously disappointed. This is french cinema at its worst : boring (and soooo predictable) plot, unimaginative direction, overwritten dialogue and a bunch of brilliant actors unable to make us believe in their characters (with the notable exceptions of Claude Risch and Charlotte Gainsbourg). Some entertaining moments won't disguise the fact that this is a huge disappointment... Too bad really.

Note: This review is from someone at Amazon.com, and HAD to be placed here! Thanks to "Glutton for books"

[ctodd1000 · 10/10 · 17 April 2005]

My favorite holiday movie for modern times!, February 1, 2005

Reviewer:   Glutton for books - See all my reviews

The first time I watched "La Buche," was a few days before Christmas in 2000, when I was not able to visit the family for Christmas. I saw it with a French friend who was not able to go home either. It is an absolutely delightful French movie about the pressures associated with the holiday season, with thought -provoking characters. Much of it will make you laugh, but I hesitate to define it as a comedy, because the term implies a simplicity which the film exceeds by including many dramatic aspects of life; chief of these are questions of identity, what makes us happy in life, and who are family and what are they for.

The core of the plot is members of a family spending the Christmas together, who have not shared a Christams celebration in many years. La Buche refers to a type of Christmas cake often eaten in France during Christmas. For the uninitiated, the French please excuse my description, it resembles a large Liitle Debbie Swiss roll. The characters of the film, like family life, are full of unexpected surprises.

Yvette, mother of the family is grieving from the loss of her second husband, and the film opens at a funeral. Her deceased husband was a musician, as was her first husband. The person may have died but it seems that the jealousy lives on. The father of the family, Stanislas, is the mother's first husband. He usually spends the Christmas alone with his favorite daughter, Milla, believing that it should not be an stressful time for him because he is Jewish, trying unsuccessfully each year to avoid the pressure associated with the holiday and its memories of its painful past, such as when he left his life in Russia behind as an child immigrant with no possessions. This year he takes a different approach to Christmas, due to a near death experience, the recent widowhood of Yvette, and determination to make amends for mistakes from his past.

Neither parent was a perfect spouse, but the children (who are grown adults) have varying perceptions of who is the better person. There are three daughters: Milla views her mother with contempt, Sonia faults the father, and Louba seems equally devoted to both.

Sonia and Milla seem the epitome of success; one with an apparently ideal marriage and family, one with a thriving career. The other daughter, Louba, appears to be the least ambitious and successful in life. But what really constitutes ideas like ambition, success, and happiness? How should these values to be qualified? What guarantees do we have for stability in life in our pursuit or implementation of such qualities? Apparently, one of Stanislas' most cherished Christmas memories was when as a poor child he received one simple toy, and the gift of a safe place to spend the night.

In addition to the traditional family, there is Joseph a boarder to whom Stanislas rents his former music studio, and who has a young child from a previous marriage and desperately wants to spend Christmas with her. Joseph rushes Stanislas to the hospital and saves his life; a service which makes the daughters curious to learn more about him and his life.

To delve too much into explaining the characters of the film, gives away much of the film's surprises that make it so enjoyable. In true form to good characterization, no one is exactly whom they first appear to be, and learning who they really are is the best part of the viewing experience.

There is much stress during the holiday season to pretend that life is working out according to plans and that you are happy, because it is a time for celebration. Even those who are not formally religious experience this pressure during the holiday season.

This movie examines that phenomena and makes you feel that you are not an anomaly for feeling tension associated with encountering family during that time of the year. By the end of the film, you feel it is okay to admit the problems that pretension of perfection exerts on your life, even if it is Christmas. In fact, the film teaches that the ability to share your imperfections and sorrows, as well as your hidden aspirations is part of what constitutes a family, and exercising this ability cements your familial relations for the better. Despite the gravity of the characters' problems and conflicts, this is ultimately a great feel-good film, that can be enjoyed at any time of the year.

american tv

[mbloxham · 4/10 · 16 February 2004]

unfortunate that Beart lends her name to this made for television soap opera a l'americaine. weak writing, a cliche script, provokes competent but always facile acting. one thinks of face-lifts.

A very French look at the "Christmas movie"

[tprofumo · 4 December 2000]

Every year, American TV serves up so-called holiday fare, meaning made-for-TV movies about Brady Bunch-like families getting together for Christmas. Most are so forgettable that they get thrown out faster than used Christmas wrapping.

The French are in general much better at dealing on film with human relationships and the complexities of modern families and so I guess it should come as no surprise that they put together a far more engrossing story of a Christmas gathering.

Daniele Thompson's "La Buche" delves into the complex relationships in one family which is just days away form Christmas when the stepfather dies. The film opens humorously at his funeral, which for some is a time of mourning and for others,just a great, big inconvenience.

There are three intriguing daughters in this family and all of them lead complex lives, propelled along by the same thing that propels most French films -- love. The oldest daughter, played by Sabine Azema, is a 42-year old singer in a Russian cabaret who has been having an affair for 12 years with a married man. The middle sister, Emmanuelle Beart, is the woman who appears to have everything: beauty, wealth, husband, kids and the kind of controlling personality that keeps them all dancing to her tune. The youngest sister, Charlotte Gainsberg, is a vaguely rebellious young, motorcycle riding loner who has no man of her own, but would like one. Then there's their real father, Claude Riche, a guy who apparently during his active years bedded more women than Magic Johnson.

American holiday movies usually include some family members in crisis and a lot of family members sharing recriminations about past transgressions. "La Buche" serves up its share of both, but with a French twist. Everyone in this family has their share of sins to confess and forgiveness to seek and in some cases, even monumental decisions to face. But they all seem to do it not only with style and grace, but with a lot of humor thrown in for good measure. If this holiday film has a message, it seems to be that you can make the best of any situation if you try hard enough.

The acting and directing here are first rate and the characters, especially the three daughters, are so intriguing you almost don't want the film to end. You want to find out how all three daughters handle the changes coming to their lives.

That's probably the best thing you can say about any film and hats off to director Thompson for making it so with "La Buche."

A delightful integration of the love of family and the lure of adultery.

[samdoc · 10/10 · 22 December 2000]

A somewhat satirical view of French values, especially family and adultery. Even when the values appear inherently contradictory, the film lifts the spirit and evokes laughter. The cabaret scenes are especially wonderful.

Delightful Funny Christmas Chick Flick

[noralee · 9/10 · 6 December 2005]

How charming to walk from Christmas-decorated 5th Avenue into the Paris Theater on 58th St. to see Christmas-decorated Paris in "La Bûche" with its soundtrack of American Christmas standards.

I've been told the title refers to the Yule Log, as in "La Bûche de Noel," but evidently everyone but me just knows this and it's never mentioned, let alone translated in the movie. It's a very French, very laugh-out loud funny "Hannah and Her Sisters" or a French Christmas take on the Thanksgiving in "What's Cooking."

Characters speak to the camera to explain the back story on the intertwined family of ex's and affairs and siblings and step-parents, adult children, aging parents (with lives! how very not Hollywood!) and babies. Characters learn about each other, some change their minds and attitudes based on that information, some don't, and family dysfunction continues with not Hollywood endings, but rather endings that make sense for each character's sanity, so are more like real life than Hollywood. Any re-make will take away all the messy charm and focus on the Christmas Eve dinner which unpredictably here turns into an anti-climax.

This is a delight, as the blurbs would say, but with a warning that it is a chick flick --the men are secondary, though quite rounded and not unsympathetic characters.

Stay for the long cute joke in the credits, but I had to infer it because it wasn't translated, so I couldn't tell how satirical it was.

(originally written 12/3/2000)

Simply excelent

[agos_ · 13 September 2003]

Tender, real, funny memorable, are words that describe this film to me. The first time I saw it, it was only the end of it, but that was enough to let me know this will be a favorite. Maybe I am not such an expert, but it has the elements a film must have to be in my memory.

Non-Traditional Fare- Season's Beatings

[eduardo10075 · 8/10 · 29 January 2008]

The English title is a good one, as despite the great opening scenes in Paris, it really is a film about how people deal with the extra stress Christmas seems to bring, or as the characters describe it, a "hostile depression". I could enjoy seeing this as a Christmas tradition! My rating is actually a 7.5, if that was an option. The film is a little understated, in that typically French way.

I like the way the actors do a reminiscence directly to the camera and the audience, especially Francoise Fabian and Claude Rich, who play the couple who have been split up for 25 years but who have not seen each other since, even though they have 3 daughters.

I also liked Sabine Azema, who I just realized I had seen very recently in Coeurs (2006)... aka Private Fears in Public Places... as Charlotte, and didn't even recognize her. Claude Rich does the voice for Arthur. While Charlotte's character is interesting, I couldn't recommend Coeurs.

La Buche, however, yes.

A Good Flick

[sharkfinsoup · 8/10 · 25 November 2000]

I really liked this movie...more what a real family goes through getting together for Christmas than many screen depictions, complete with breakups, family secrets and skeletons. Maybe you won't like this if you don't like to go to the movies that feature disappointment and bitterness. But it's leavened with some very funny stuff, too, just like real life. Interesting, because Daniele Thompson, who directed, wrote this with her son Christopher.

The American Christmas carols on the soundtrack are a little nauseating...I hear too much of them in department stores...but it is a reflection of the Americanization of France and this holiday.

The acting is well-done. I especially liked Claude Rich as the father and Charlotte Gainesbourg as the youngest daughter. I generally love Emmanuelle Beart, who plays the most Martha Stewart-like of the 3 sisters, but she has a probably the smallest role here.

It's a goddam Christmas tradition over here...

[conedust · 28 April 2003]

Saw "La Buche" last night. It's somewhat dull but pleasant and well-acted throughout. I enjoy the French tendency to feature artists and philosophically inclined persons as cinematic main characters (while we Americans get cops and the pugilistically inclined), and "La Buche" rewards on that level: the characters are lovely, intelligent, articulate and well dressed.

Underneath the surface trappings, however, the movie doesn't have much to say. It's a tribute to emotional cowardice dolled up as a celebration of familial devotion - all in the guise of a Christmas movie. Which would be genuinely funny if "La Buche" were at all cynical about its own motives. As far as I could tell, it isn't. I gather that we're supposed to buy bad decision-making redeemed by absurd coincidence as evidence that true love will out in the end.

P.S. I am beyond tired of the suggestion in French films that infidelity is the one true badge of masculine identity. Didn't this idea become boring in, oh, like, 1965?

The red wooden horse!

[christian_fournier · 10/10 · 27 December 2019]

This movie has an excellent script excellently played. The theme is somewhat along that of the calypso song "Shame and scandal in the family"; but in several instances, events in the intrigue are only suggested. One episode which non-French viewers unfamiliar with WW II history may find difficult to fully understand is when Stanislas (the father) explains to his daughter Sonia (the only one yet with children) why the little red wooden horse he hands her (to transmit to her son) is an important and significant gift. Stanislas reminisces about this Christmas night of 1942 when, fleeing with his parents the Nazi persecution of the Jews, he was hosted by a French family in a village of the Alps, near the Swiss border. In spite of the dramatic circumstances, the Catholic villagers gave the poor refugees a Christmas dinner and in the morning their children found very simple gifts (such as the red wooden horse) under the tree. It was to be for Stanislas the most wonderful Christmas of his life. The next evening, the refugees were led (by the father of the host family) across the Swiss border, to safety and freedom. This is the underlying message of the film : all these four adult children whose life the film depicts would not have been born if, one Christmas night, good men and women had not done their part against evil. _.

Wonderful french Christmas movie (:

[richwgriffin-227-176635 · 10/10 · 20 December 2012]

I will concentrate on the wonderful cast of actors in this warm witty family comedy-drama. Sabine Azema plays a 42 year old woman who sings at a Russian restaurant/club - she's pregnant with her married lover's child. She's the eldest city and the most flamboyant. Emmanuelle Beart is the middle child, with the most money, a husband and children. She's the one who organizes events. The youngest sister is Charlotte Gainsbourg, who won a Cesar for her role in this movie - she's tough, neurotic, selfish, and fascinating. They learn they have a half-brother, played by co-screenwriter and son of the female director, Christopher Thompson. He's a wonderful actor as well as a terrific writer. he plays a sullen depressed man coping with the end of his marriage to the neurotic Annabelle, played by an unrecognizable Isabelle Carre. Claude Rich plays their father in a flamboyant dashing performance. Francoise Fabian plays the girl's mother. I just love french movie stars, because they take risks, and will play both leads and supporting roles in their long and varied careers.

The music is wonderful. The direction - by Daniele Thompson - one of my favorite under-rated French directors (Avenue Montaigne is probably my favorite of her films)is first-rate. Just saw it again for a third time on TV5MONDE! (: Wonderful!

Midnight In Moscow

[writers_reign · 24 September 2004]

Three sisters of Russian parentage; one married but not too happily, one having an affair with a married man who'll never leave his wife and one without a man at all and unhappy; all three longing for something ... I like to think that Daniele Thompson wrote this charmer with her tongue in her cheekhov but who knows. What I do know is that together with son Christopher Thompson, who also has a featured role, she has hit one out of the park in her first at bat. We shouldn't be too surprised, she wrote her first screenplay at the age of 24 and Le Grande Vadrouille, directed by her father and ex-actor Gerard Oury was one of the biggest hits in France and is still aired regularly. Along the way she has written such comedies as La Folie de grandeurs, Le Cerveau, Les Adventures de Rabbi Jacob plus the more mainstream Cousin, Cousine, La Boum, Les Marmottes, La Reine Margot, Belle Maman, Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train (Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train) and Decalage Horaire, solid credits whichever way you slice it. La Buche begins on December 20, with a funeral. The widow, Yvette (Francoise Fabian) is joined initially by two of her daughters, Louba (Sabine Azema) the eldest and Sonia (Emmanuelle Beart), the middle one. With the ceremony all but over the youngest, Milla (Charlotte Gainsbourg) arrives wearing a miniskirt, as Sonia bitches to Louba later. The deceased is, in fact, the stepfather of the three girls, their parents having been divorced some 25 years previously. The respective characters are limmned economically and expertly. Sonia, the successful one who buys groceries wholesale to save FF300, Louba the hopeless romantic who sings Russian songs in a Russian restaurant and has been involved with a married man, Gilbert (Jean-Pierre Larroussin) for 12 years and Milla, the youngest and most rebellious who is also successful but chooses to live, according to Sonia, in a rat hole. The film chronicles the family during the build-up to Christmas and naturally everyone has their own problems; Louba, at 42, has become pregnant but feels unable to tell her lover - Gilbert is an up-market estate agent and their trysts take place in well-appointed apartments in between sales and Thompson extracts a little gently mileage out of Azema bringing her own bed linen and packing it the next morning - Sonia's marriage is on the rocks, Milla is so lonely she canvasses casual work colleagues as to their availability for Christmas whilst Stanislaus, the girl's natural father, who during his marriage was a serial adulterer, remains bitter even after 25 years and subjects Louba, who lives with him, to an ongoing barrage of bile. Even the tenant, Joseph (Christopher Thompson), who has become an unofficial carer for Stanislaus, has problems in the shape of ex-wife Annabelle (Isabelle Carre) who has custody except at Christmas when she is reluctant to surrender it. Thompson weaves these separate strands expertly into a huge, warm blanket and contrives to deal with most if not all of the problems. A stunning debut with acting honors divided equally with all hands well worth five stars. 8/10

A Great Film

[goldberg_andrew_t · 10/10 · 10 November 2000]

I see very few foreign films, but this one was excellent. It was serious and complex with great acting and directing. Some very intense scenes with the actors addressing the camera directly and retelling personal stories from the past which have a huge impact on the story line. Great film making.

Not suitable for biased readers

[du00 · 7 February 2001]

How many times do I still have to read the words "French cinema at its worst" ? Reviewers please try to be a bit more imaginative.

And if you cannot, wouldn't it be wiser to avoid commenting such movies ? At least leave this one alone which has strongly developed characters and features Sabine Azema and Charlotte Gainsbourg, actresses who are in actual fact able to make their women look real like few others. And shows Emmanuelle Beart, who most of the times is a bonus 'per se' and here appears in two quick back-to-back scenes which can only be described as jaw-dropping. Anyway: advise to whoever still despises the <<French>> after watching this film : please compare it with dysfunctional family features like 'Parenthood' 'Home For The Holidays' 'The Myth Of Fingerprints' 'The House of Yes' 'One True Thing' 'The Weekend' 'Sebastian Cole' 'No Looking Back' etc (find out any which one you missed if you care). And good luck ....

Worth Renting

[Spyderbabe · 29 August 2002]

Interesting look at individual family members as they approach the dreaded Christmas Holidays. Nothing is as it seems and everyone's issues have deep roots. Well lit and filmed the film is a little long and slow in places but worth a look.

The Tenenbaums done right

[areinhol · 3 January 2002]

I saw this film and The Royal Tenenbaums in the course of the same week. The themes were very similar (a coincidence?), but La Buche was more interesting, more believable and more enjoyable. I cared about the characters. Gene Hackman's brood were cardboard cutouts. And La Buche didn't need the Hollywood formulaic 500 milliseconds of exposed breast to earn its adult status.