THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO

Compelling film that gets nowhere near Kilimanjaro! (Review by Caroline Smart)

Having been brought up in Kenya where holiday trips to Mombasa via the Tsavo National Park meant passing the impressive sight of Mount Kilimanjaro, I was immediately tempted to move away from my usual theatre beat to review The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

Without doing any research on the movie, I assumed that it might be a remake of the 1952 film which starred Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, and Susan Hayward and was based on one of Ernest Hemingway best short stories.

Contrary to my eager expectations, the film goes nowhere near Kilimanjaro which the press release led me to believe. As the movie progressed, I became more than a little confused to see that the scenario seemed firmly based in Marseilles in France with Africa nowhere in sight.

Then came the explanation. In a scene depicting the wedding anniversary of Michel and his wife Marie-Claire, they are presented with a gift. Family and friends have clubbed together to pay for tickets for them to travel to Tanzania to see the beautiful mountain. To endorse the gift, they all sing Pascal Danel's hit song Kilimandjaro known in French as Les Neiges du Kilimandjaro. Hence the title.

Inspired by Victor Hugo’s poem Les Pauvres gens, screenwriters Jean-Louis Milesi and the film’s director Robert Guediguian and Director of Photography Pierre Milon have produced a sensitively-handled and compelling film.

The opening scenes are set in a plant in the harbour where workers are being laid off, one of them being a union representative who has deliberately included his name in those to be pulled out of a hat. Now faced with forced retirement, Michel – a man of few words - tries to come to terms with his new lifestyle, often to the despair of his hard-working wife who is a carer.

The anniversary gift sees an exciting adventure on the horizon, taking him away from welding a gazebo as well as his not-very-successful attempts at cooking.

Then disaster strikes and the money and tickets are stolen. The resultant trauma on each of the individuals involved in the robbery is well handled. However, in their own separate ways, Michel and Marie-Claire try to find a positive way forward.

As Michel and Marie-Claire, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Ariane Ascaride put in compelling performances, particularly in the sensitive scenes. Also impressive are Gérard Meylan as Raoul and Marilyne Canto as his wife Denise.There are beautifully held silences and the French sub-titles seem to accurately mirror the minimal speech.

Good performances also come from Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet who plays the catalyst in the trauma as well as from his younger brothers, played by Yann Loubatiere and Jean-Baptiste Fonck, who are both charming and endearing in their roles.

By now, you will have guessed that I became so caught up in the movie that I forgot about Kilimanjaro!

The Snows of Kilimanjaro (Les Neiges du Kilimanjaro) is in French with subtitles and will be released officially to the public at Cinema Nouveau outlets on June 15. – Caroline Smart