LA VIE DE JEAN-MARIE

Straw throws off dust, and gives him hay fever. He has to frequently pull up the purslane shoots invading his garden. Every day, clouds obscure the Canigou range overlooking his village, Olette. But Jean-Marie, who’s originally from the Netherlands, is not one to complain. Far from it. The pastor and farmer is voluble, warm and jovial. After he turned 70, a failed romance led him to become a man of faith. He diligently ministers to the spiritual needs of some 25 villages in the eastern Pyrenees, where he celebrates mass. For six years, documentary filmmaker Peter Van Houten (I’m Still Alive) documented the daily life of a unique man — spontaneous, endearing, thoroughly sincere, and as alive as ever to women’s beauty. With sequences in the true cinéma-vérité tradition, scenes shot in superb black and white, and refreshing doses of humour, La vie de Jean-Marie, which premiered at the most recent Rotterdam festival, captivates us with its patient and precise attention to its subject. By pursuing happiness, the film produces plenty of it.