I'll start with a brief comment on Comment c'est loin. I was getting the feeling that too much of the film was being lost in translation. This was not a good subtitling job, tipped off by a line in the opening song, "I want to be suck." I pulled up subtitles to see how bad the problem was. For example...
During the film a character says, "Faudra pas qu'j'oublie bouger la mégane, j'suis garé comme un bico." This was subtitled as, "Better to not forget moving my car, I'm parked like a slut," which didn't make much sense to me, unless that's the style of the language. Google translate gave me, "I will not forget to move the megan, I'm parked like a bico." I looked further to learn 'bico' is slang for someone who does stupid things. The point being, I felt like I wasn't going to get the verbal style with the tools I had.
Our Little Sister
I've been watching a lot of 50s Hollywood melodramas this year, and this is the opposite in approach though it provides the same dramatic satisfaction. This was also my year with Ozu, and from the opening meal between the three sisters I clicked into expecting small, gentle changes instead of Big Drama. At first, folding the sister into the family dynamic had me observing how this new element had the other three sisters taking a closer look at their current life situation. It's as if the new sister was a gentle and positive person - unlike melodrama where she would bring emotional chaos and destruction - yet her very presence was moving everyone into a slightly new future. However, many of life's events were coming at them from the outside. Something bad happens to them and instead of three people supporting each other through the experience there are four.
It's a movie that isn't going to force anything onto you. You have to live within this dynamic and make observations. It's a film that got me to enjoy the quiet shifts along with the unpredictability. It's like the board game of life and you never know what each spin of the wheel will bring. There are also lots of meals. Perhaps not enough food porn shots, but plenty to eat and drink.