The Plane

In a change of tack for the director of ‘Roberto Succo’ and ‘L’Ennui’, Kahn offers a family movie version of a French kids graphic annual. Young Charly is disappointed to receive a model jet-liner instead of a bicycle as a Xmas present from his military engineer-pilot father, but following his father’s demise is shocked to find out the plane can fly. Unusally, Kahn plays this metaphor of attachment through grief for real: not only do Charly’s classmates and his mother witness the flights, but (in echoes of standard Hollywood horror) his father’s military colleague threateningly insists on taking the plane away for scientific examination. If you can buy the premise – perhaps young audiences will be most willing – the film’s gentle and measured direction and the general sensitivity of approach may prove rewarding.