A HOUSE ON FIRE
‘A film should help us see ourselves differently’ announced Steven Spielberg recently. A House on Fire does that. Its insights, comic and tragic linger in the mind – as intriguing as the first few frames of the film where we see a woman walk down the street in a straw hat – and we straightaway think’ What’s going on here?”
Camera Catalonia brings us, the bright Spanish scene alongside a corker of a story in this all-action tale of a group of people who seem to have it all. The sun shines, the wild sea crashes into the splendid rocky cove and the holiday house is a dream come true.- one of those white modernist cubes perched on the rocks, the kind of luxury minimalist arty upscale beach place glimpsed and envied everywhere. But within ten minutes of the start of this exciting and hilarious film we know all is very much not well.
A Catalan family return to their Costa Brava home for a discussion about its future. But from the outset we know the mother Montse played with convincing guile by Emma Vilarasau hides a secret no single member of her family suspects.
There is the ambitious guitarist son with a thwarted desire for his musical recognition – his concert chance is one of the many moments of suppressed embarrassed hilarity , whilst his sky-diving escapades with his gorgeous girlfriend have everyone on the edge of their seats – and the limits of their patience. Even the children are wilful and difficult, whilst the ex-husband’s woman friend turns out have the lot of them sussed in the way only a psychotherapist ,for this is she, can.
The film has gone down a storm in Spain with audiences demanding a sequel. There is certainly something about the Spanish sense of humour that is quintessentially outrageous. Not for them the super suppressed agony of family feuds in good old Blighty. This family is outrageously transgressive – quarrels are soon in the open, behaviour is out there too. The spoilt son’s helpful reasonable lovely girlfriend is an astounded outsider as things deteriorate.
Yet the conclusion is brilliant dramatic frightening at once
‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’ Tolstoy’s famous opening lines are smack on target with this unmissable film..
