Will It Snow for Christmas?

You'll have a blue, blue, blue Noel down on the farm in southern France, the setting for Sandrine Veysset's tender, melancholy, affecting first feature, Will It Snow for Christmas? December is like every other month in this sad tale: seven little children slave over the farm work, lorded over by their unfeeling, mercenary father (Daniel Ducal). He also keeps the lights off and food to a minimum in their crowded, unheated, no-plumbing farmhouse.

The seven are bastards; their dad spends his quality time at the home of his legitimate family. He leaves the brood with their mom (Dominique Raymond), whom he met long after his marriage, courted, impregnated, and placed down in this second farm. He made her pregnant again and again, then bullied her and the children into becoming his unpaid work force. Still beautiful and vital, she grows weary and hopeless in the unending drudgery of picking tomatoes, washing radishes, hoeing, irrigating.

What she has is the devotion of the children. Will It Snow for Christmas? is an endearing family love story. The narrative climaxes on Christmas Eve, with the father, typically, far away. Mother and children, abandoned all, snuggle together in a lonely, stoical night of silly jokes, songs, and horseplay, hoping that snowflakes will fall outside. You'll also pray for la neige: Veysett's heartbreaking movie has attracted large audiences in France, where it was selected by critics as Best Film of 1997.

-- Gerald Peary