I Suppose There Was a Christmas Tree

So here’s the thing. I didn’t read plot summaries of any of these movies before I put them on my calendar. I found lists of Christmas movies and put them on various days. Most of the movies we’ve done so far have been tangentially about Christmas at best. A tiny bit of the movie happens on Christmas. Holiday Affair, fine, but not even the ones with Christmas in the title, particularly. This one is no exception and actually is the most depressing one we’ve gotten and the most depressing one we’re likely to get.

Pascal (Brook Fuller) is on summer vacation and tells his father, Laurent Ségur (William Holden), that he doesn’t want to go to Deauville or Monte Carlo or any of the other places his father typically wants to go. He convinces his father to take him camping in Corsica. Unfortunately, he sees a plane explode, and a bomb parachutes into the sea. Pascal is exposed to radiation and ends up with six months to live. His father wants to make his last six months happy, so he takes him to his country estate and gives him whatever he wants, which starts with a tractor and eventually includes stealing wolves from the Paris zoo.

Laurent’s girlfriend, Catherine (Virna Lisi), knows, because Laurent has to tell someone. But the goal is apparently to keep it from everyone else. Goodness only knows what excuse Laurent gives the school administrators, because he’s not worrying in the slightest about giving Pascal an education. Why bother? Which is hard to argue with. Catherine sends Pascal a natural history by Buffon, Since Buffon died just before the French Revolution, one wonders how accurate it is, but since all Pascal wants to do is learn about wolves, I’m not sure how much it matters.

Laurent is rightly angry that his ten-year-old boy is going to die from a weapon of war during a time of peace. Worse, no one knows. They don’t want to cause a general panic. Now, anything that could give a kid terminal radiation sickness from watching the explosion or seeing the bomb or whatever caused it should be injuring more people, and of course the first hint we see that there’s a problem is a guy who won’t eat fish because he’s heard about the incident. But there are a lot of things that happen during theoretical times of peace that hurt innocents, and that remains real and a real problem.

Actually, the most surprising thing about this movie is that William Holden speaks French throughout. I wasn’t aware he speaks French, though I suppose it’s because he was in a relationship with Capucine for two years, apparently ended by his drinking. I do wish I could’ve found a copy of this with subtitles that weren’t out of sync with the dialogue onscreen; it would’ve made things easier to follow. But I’m not going to watch this movie again, so I’m not that worried.