Tom et Lola

Did You Know?

• In Switzerland, the film was distributed by Sadfi Films.
• In Japan, the film was released in 1991 and distributed by New Select.
• The film was distributed in France by AFMD, with foreign sales by Gaumont Film Company.

Plot

Tom and Lola are a young boy and girl with a rare disease that prevents any contact with the outside world. They are kept inside plastic bubbles in a Paris hospital, where they have almost no external stimuli except an old black-and-white TV showing educational films and a show called The Adventures of Tikira in Alaska. Tom's mother is in constant attendance but has become alienated from them, and their closest attachment is to each other and to Hélène, a medical team member who has been like a parent. The children discover they can reach out and grasp each other's hands using the gauntlets of their plastic pods. One night, Tom pulls Lola's bubble close enough to reach the emergency deflate controls on her bubble, freeing her, and she then releases him. Over subsequent nights, they regularly escape and meet Robert, a boy in another ward who initially thinks they are Martians due to their nakedness and baldness. They become friends, and Robert shows them the hospital, including a hydrotherapy pool where he has a seizure after his medication drip line pulls out; the pair save him. Robert tells them he is from Izoard, a skiing village in the French Alps, and shows them plans to escape the hospital. They agree to escape together the next night, but when they arrive, Robert has already left and later comes to grief climbing the hospital wall. Undeterred, Tom and Lola decide to escape anyway, having secured Hélène's address.

Production

The film was directed by Bertrand Arthuys and written by Arthuys, Christian de Chalonge, and Muriel Teodori. François Catonné served as cinematographer, Corinne Jorry as costume designer, and Michèle Abbé as production designer. Executive producers were Alain Belmondo and Gérard Crosnier, while producers were Jean-François Davy, Francis Veber, and Danielle Vannier. Other crew included Laurent Barès as assistant operator, Jeanne Kef as editor, Monica Coleman as assistant editor, Frank Camhi as still photographer, Isabelle Henry as assistant director, Arthur Cloquet as camera operator, François Gédigier as sound editor, and Guillaume Sciama, François Groult, and Joël Rangod as sound recordists. Music was composed by Christophe Arthuys and Jean-Pierre Fouquey. The film was entirely produced in France on 35 mm film with a runtime of 97 minutes. It is a science fiction parable from French cinema auteur Bertrand Arthuys that presents a libertarian perspective for children where false morality has no place. Arthuys avoids existentialist melodrama common with ill children, making the film more like a carefree adventure. The children appear nude for roughly half the film, but this serves his message, and their physical expressions of affection remain age-appropriate. Lola and Tom engage in gritty, witty dialogue with the scientific team each morning to alleviate daily tedium. A recurring motif is the code phrase 'Iceberg-Alaska-Tikira', a whispered mantra for celebration or connection, later supplemented by 'Izoard!' as an aspirational symbol. The children's interaction with the adult world, populated by imbeciles playing ridiculous roles, suggests they are ahead of the 'common sense' practiced in the hospital.