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 Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 2:39 am Post subject: _Life and Nothing But_ |
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A prototype Tavernier film; I saw it when it came out in theaters
in the early 90s, and have been itching to see it again on account
of Sabine Azema's rare outing into period drama. The filim belongs
to Philippe Noiret, of course, who is paramount as the crusty,
wise-cracking, anti-authoritarian Tavernier hero. This time he is
a major in the French army circa 1920, trying to find identify
remains of soldiers and close the cases on the "missing in actions."
There are some grim scenes in mental hospitals, although the
film refrains from showing veterans with mutilated bodies and
faces; a crucial scene with a train wrecked inside a collapsing
tunnel certainly accentuates the grimness and danger of this
enterprise which the French government (if not its widows)
would rather goes away. Despite this, the film has a lot of
dark gallow humor, almost as funny as the other recent post-WWI
film _A Very Long Engagement_. For example, a small village
tries to claim a couple dead from its neighbors so it would not
feel slighted. There is a lot of authentic footage of recovering/
identifying the soldier's relics. While the camera work isn't as
frenetic as in _A Very Long Engagement_ (and there isn't airships
turning into fireballs either), the elegant tracking shots and
enigmatic
camera moves into close-ups (Tavernier's trademarks, more
appropriate here than in _Daddy Nostalgia_) are excellent,
especially when the camera seems to glide in the midst of
big crowds; the effect is almost, if not quite, as poetic as those
in _Days of Heaven_. There is a cynical story about searching
for the body of an "unknown" French soldier as a symbol of their
sacrifice, too. But back to Sabine Azema. In the DVD
extra interview, Tavernier mentions that Fanny Ardant was the
first choice, and that for some shooting days he sees Azema
through the mold of the other actress, which further isolates
her from the other actors/technical people, and paradoxically
strengthens her characterization of an aristocratic lady dead
set on finding her husband. Personally I much prefer Azema
to Ardant; interesting that Tavernier talks of her as an outsider
when they did his masterpiece, _A Sunday in the Country_ together.
(Both characters are called "Irene.") As the interviewer mentions,
the film has a lot of energy, and Azema's quirky persona and
modern disposition certainly contribute a great deal to that.
The opening scene is truly majestic, with Azema riding a horse
on a beach while an ordering drives along and summons her
to another hospital to search for the husband. The passage
to modernity. WWII and the Stukas are just 19 years away. |
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