Papa

Louis is a small boy driving home with his father. The father clowns constantly, and Louis does not laugh every time. Sometimes the father flares up suddenly and turns on people who do not deserve it; that does not make Louis laugh either. Still, the father knows how to calm his son when he is upset. Lately he has stopped looking after himself, he is unshaven, and he wakes at night from nightmares. Maurice Barthélemy's film runs eighty minutes and takes place almost entirely between these two. It becomes clear that the film is keeping something from the viewer; once that thing comes out, every scene has to be read again from the start. Alain Chabat plays the father and shows what an actor known as a comedian can do in a part with no comedy in it. Martin Combes plays little Louis. Judith Godrèche is in the cast.