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La France2007
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Winner of the "Prix Jean Vigo" for the best French debut film, Serge Bozon's LA FRANCE is "a WWI movie like none other" (NY Times). An intoxicating blend of wartime romance and brightly colored musical, the film depicts an original world. French farm girl Camille (Sylvie Testud) is awaiting news of her husband (the late Guillaume Depardieu), who is fighting at the front. After she receives an enigmatic letter ending their relationship, she dresses up as a boy and joins a wandering regiment in search of her estranged love. Skirting the edges of battlefields, the platoon haunts the screen like shell-shocked specters, awakening for four uncannily beautiful musical numbers played on homemade string instruments. The tunes are disarmingly catchy 60s pop, an attempt to imagine utopia in the midst of hell. A striking vision that reaches for the sublime amidst the dehumanizing horror of war, LA FRANCE is a highly acclaimed work of art. With exquisite cinematography from Céline Bozon (Serge’s sister) and a tour-de-force performance from Sylvie Testud.
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Winner of the "Prix Jean Vigo" for the best French debut film.
3 members like this review
An entertaining movie and definitely recommend. It borrowed some old cinematography techniques from "The Singing Dective," and wandered a bit like a Fellini film looking for an ending.
top reviewer
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Starring
- Jean-Christophe Bouvet - Elias
- Guillaume Depardieu - François Robin
- Benjamin Esdraffo - Pierre
- Pascal Greggory - The Lieutenant
- Laurent Lacotte - Frédéric
- Pierre Leon - Alfred
- François Négret - Jacques
- Laurent Talon - Antoine
- Sylvie Testud - Camille
- Guillaume Verdier - The Cadet
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Member Reviews (9)
top reviewer
An entertaining movie and definitely recommend. It borrowed some old cinematography techniques from "The Singing Dective," and wandered a bit like a Fellini film looking for an ending.
3 members like this review
Haunting tail of the horrors or war!
1 member likes this review
top reviewer
Brilliant war movie. Somewhat magical, strange. But then war is insane anyway.
Very effective in evoking the insanity of war in all its paradoxes.
staff
The musical numbers are great in this.
zzzzz
That was totally unexpected when they burst into song.
Excellent examination of how war changes men. . . .
Can't figure out what all the critical fuss was about because I can't figure out what this film is actually trying to say. A band of WWI French army deserters wandering around behind and then in the front lines, whilel periodically breaking into song? Too much for this Francophil to comprehend. Perhaps you have to be a professional critic to really "get it."
its good movie i like it