Bertrand Tavernier's "A Sunday in the Country" is an interesting experiment but not one I found myself very much drawn into. I have a feeling that as subjective as many films are this is really a film you either love or just don't get. I didn't get it.
Pierre Bost's novel which I read prior to seeing this film does a much better job of drawing you into this family and these characters than the script by Bertrand and Colo Tavernier does. While much in this film is of passing interest to the viewer and some of the lengthy conversations are well-written and realistic, much of the film covers the sort of mundane formalities I find boring at family gatherings. Bost's novel makes very similar content interesting by writing it a little differently.
The overall story of the film is fairly interesting with the lead character Monsieur Ladmiral being an interesting and captivating character. There are some brilliant moments in the film, including the final scene, but they really are outweighed by trivial, mundane happenings.
Does Tavernier succeed purely as a director here? Yes. The film is paced as well as it could possibly be with this script and it is gorgeously photographed and filmed with some of the best use of steadicam I can remember. It's just a shame this script is in general, despite the occasional burst of excellence and admirable handling of the film's themes, a bore.
Far from the director's best- see "Coup de torchon" and "Daddy Nostalgie" for some pretty faultless cinema.
6/10
