STUDIO: Kino/Lorber | DIRECTOR: Serge Bozon | STARS: Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Guillaume Verdier, Guillaume Depardieu
RELEASE DATE: 4/6/2010 | PRICE: DVD$29.95
BONUSES: photo gallery
SPECS: NR | 102 min. | Foreign language musical drama | 1.85:1 widescreen | stereo | French subtitlesRATINGS (out of 5): Movie
| Audio
La France takes a very familiar premise into uncharted territory with unexpected results. The prospect of a “war musical” might seem to belong to the Sixties (remembering Richard Attenborough’s Oh! What a Lovely War), but actor-turned director Serge Bozon does much with the concept here, fashioning a film that is faithful to both genres.
The plot revolves around a young woman (Sylvie Testud, La Vie en Rose) in WWI-era France who seeks news of her boyfriend, so she disguises herself as a teenage boy and follows an army regiment. The film turns from Shakespeare to Brecht, however, when the soldiers she travels with — who are keeping their own secret — suddenly begin to sing as they relax from their odyssey.
The original songs the troops perform have the air of ye-ye, the catchiest sort of Sixties French pop, but the actors playing the soldiers performed them live on-set using instruments that existed in 1917 (thus making this an “unplugged” musical.) The resulting sequences beautifully punctuate what is otherwise a very quiet, contemplative film about the “war to end all wars.”
La France may not be for those seeking a John Wayne-style gung-ho war movie or a colorful Gene Kelly musical, but it will please film buffs seeking a different kind of cinematic hybrid that rewards attentive viewers.
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