The Belier Family (La Famille Belier) (2014)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy Drama	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2014
Running Time	101:16
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Eric Lartigau
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Louane Emera Karin Viard Francois Damiens Eric Elmosino Ilian Bergala
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	French Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English (Burned In)	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     This sweet 2014 French film is a funny and touching story of a family living in a rural village. La Famille Belier or The Family Belier was nominated for numerous 2015 Cesar Awards (the French Oscars), winning only one for Most Promising Actress for Louane Emera, who stars as Paula Belier, the young girl at the centre of the story. The actors who play her parents, Karin Viard and Francois Damiens were also nominated along with the actor who plays her music teacher, Eric Elmosino. They all certainly deserve the accolades as it is the performances of the cast that really make this story sing (literally).

     Paula is about 16 years old, living on her family dairy farm and dealing with the fact that both her parents and her younger brother are all profoundly deaf. This means she must do everything the farm needs to stay afloat that involves communication with the broader community such as dealing with the vet, her parent's doctor (regardless how confronting the topic!), the bank, customers at the market, suppliers and more. She struggles with fitting everything in but when a new boy from Paris, Gabriel (Ilian Bergala) starts attending her school, she decides to join the school choir to spend time with him. Soon the choir teacher, Thomasson, realises that she has a wonderful hidden talent which of course her family have no idea of. He wants her to audition for a Paris based singing school but she worries about how her family will cope and doesn't tell them she is even practicing. To add to the challenges she faces, her father also decides to run for Mayor of their town, due to the plans of the existing Mayor to overly develop the area.

     This is a gentle, funny, touching and heartfelt film which I certainly enjoyed both when I saw it on a plane (despite Emirates censoring the subtitles!) and when I watched it again with my family. It is a little bit rude at times but not without adding value to the story. Some parts I didn't understand on the plane made sense with the proper subtitles. As I mentioned above the acting is the star here along with the good quality and different screenplay. In terms of the music included it is mostly songs by well-known French pop singer, Michel Sardou sung by the cast and the vocal work by the young cast is generally of very high quality. The song and performance at the end is beautiful and touching.

     If you enjoy French cinema this one is a must!

Video

     The video quality is quite good for DVD with good sharpness, great colour and good shadow detail. The problem here is pronounced motion blur, worse than DVD average although not terrible. Otherwise this is pretty good. Technically it is 16x9 enhanced at 1.78:1 which is close to the OAR.

     There are English subtitles available which are clear and easy to read. They are burned-in rather than a stream.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio is also very good. The audio is French Dolby Digital 5.1. This is nice soundtrack, perfect for the style of film with mostly front focused sound and good dialogue. The singing sounds good contributing to the overall enjoyment of the film. The subwoofer supports the music and the surrounds are mostly used for atmosphere and mild effects.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu features music. I was disappointed there were no scene selections available.

Theatrical Trailer (2:36)

    Subtitled film trailer.

    This film is available in the UK in the same format and there are Blu-ray editions available but not locally. I cannot find an English friendly Blu-ray version. For DVD the local edition is fine.

    The video quality is quite good.

    The audio quality is very good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall