The Tree (2010 film)
- Charlotte Gainsbourg: Dawn O'Neil
- Morgana Davies: Simone O'Neil
- Marton Csokas: George Elrick
- Christian Byers: Tim O'Neil
- Tom Russell: Lou O'Neil
- Aden Young: Peter O'Neil
- Penne Hackforth -Jones: Mrs. Johnson
The Tree is an Australian- French drama film from 2010 by Julie Bertuccelli. The film adaptation based on the novel Our Father Who Art in the Tree by Judy Pascoe tells the story of a mother and her daughter: They believe that the soul of the deceased husband and father in the tree moved next to the house and would henceforth live there with them.
Action
Peter O'Neil lives happy and in love with his wife Dawn O'Neil and shared four children in the Australian outback. When he picks up his daughter one day of playing and goes home, he has a heart attack in the car. As he was dying he caused his car in the large fig tree next to his house in an accident. With the death of Peter the happiness disappears in the family, so Dawn depressed and their children are selfish and aggressive. Only Simone chooses to be happy and discovered that the tree on which her father died, apparently took up his soul and now whispers to her. She climbs more frequently in order to converse with him. After a few days she also raises her mother Dawn from sleep to her to confide this secret. Dawn even then climbs into the tree up, distributed personal belongings of Peter, believes in Peter's soul in the tree and talks to him.
But the tree continues to grow aggressively, so that it not only attacks with its roots the foundation of the house, but also clogs the water pipes. When Dawn is looking for a plumber do it all, George Elrick not only a helpful craftsmen, but also their new boss, with whom she works during the day as a new seller. With him, she again feels comfortable and happy, so she spends more and more time with him and accompanied him after work on a round of drinks in the pub. There, they play and dance together until the first time they come close and kiss her. Simone guess it only slightly, as a particularly large branch destroyed Dawn's bedroom window and lands directly on the bed. She considers it a punishment of the tree. And Dawn uses it to cuddle up under the leaves and branches and can sleep protected again.
Simone is horrified when she discovers that with George a new man came to her mother's life, and how it attracts violent and force the thicket of branches from the bedroom and rips her mother. Furious, she will when she finds out that George with his caravan as her mother's new boyfriend's Christmas with the children spends the beach and yet again comes up a little happiness and joy. Dawn finds himself soon this anger to George, because when they come back from vacation, they see how strong the tree already picked up the house with its branches and its roots in fitting and it threatens to destroy. George holds, this initiative to have cut down the tree, where he tries by all means, Simone, who wants to defend the tree to pull out of the tree. Dawn is that enough insulted George and chases him off.
After Dawn had slept one night under the protection of the tree, a cyclone threatened the coastal region. Although Dawn can save with their children, but the cyclone destroyed almost the entire house and uprooted the tree, so that she sees the opportunity and with her family pulls ahead as it keeps nothing in the place.
Criticism
" A case study of grief. The Tree follows more or less Elisabeth Kubler- Ross' five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. But the story takes a path which could be loved by both a poet as well as an arborist. "
" The film presents most of its metaphors without straining toward supernatural lard. What is not easy, in a story that has many qualities of a fairy tale and practically dependent on a happy ending, which does not want to provide the film with its muted optimism. "
" In Julie Bertucellis movies death has not the last word. He is communicating with the lost people no end. [ ... ] Not unreservedly, but devotedly risks the film of nature. His animistic furor may lead some viewers to a crossroads. Bertucelli lets him commute between the principle of the possible and the fairy-tale. The tree appears regularly intervene in the lives of the bereaved. After Dawn has a first, secret rendezvous with her new employer, breaking a road and crashes into her bedroom. Soon the roots threaten the survival of the house so massive that it should be like. The conflict between persistence and departure will be decided by the forces of nature; the burden of symbolism weighs light in this film. "
"Without pathos, but with Charlotte Gainsbourg: In" The Tree " introduces himself to a ten- year-old, her late father had been transformed into a tree. A children's film about the death that does not press on the lacrimal gland? When one has seen such a thing? "
" As Charlotte Gainsbourg as a narrow, fragile Dawn the woman standing next to him plays in embryonic sleeping position refuge in the hammock or a trough of the tree and is brought back from their four-to fourteen- year-old egomaniac in saving daily activities, are the wonderfully unsentimental tone the film before. "
Motivation
Both the director Julie Bertuccelli and Charlotte Gainsbourg each had experienced the loss of a private close to them. Gainsbourg lost as a twenty year old woman her father Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991) by death. As an actress, she had two things against fear one hand, they believed that they could not play the role adequately enough for the director. On the other hand, she was afraid to hum while driving happily to the tune of Bach.
Awards
- Three nominations at the 2011 César adapted for Charlotte Gainsbourg for Best Actress, for Best Film Music by Grégoire Hetzel and for Best Screenplay by Julie Bertucelli.
- Five nominations at the AFI Award 2011 ( Best Director, twice for Best Actress, Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay), and one each nominated for the AFI Visual Effects Award and the AFI Young Actor Award
Publication
The Tree had its world premiere at the International Film Festival of Cannes 2010 on May 23, 2010. Having arrived in France on 11 August 2010 and in Australia on September 30, 2010 release, he ran in Germany on 3 March 2010. Worldwide he played only a 2.2 million U.S. dollars. Since 2 September 2011, the film is available on DVD in Germany.