La vie et rien d'autre (1989)
(Life and Nothing But)
Country: FR
Technical: col/scope 134m
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Cast: Philippe Noiret, Sabine Azéma, Michel Duchaussoy
Synopsis:
Two years after the Great War a commandant working to account for the thousands of missing combatants is called upon by the ministry to provide candidates for the tomb of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe. Meanwhile a widow and a waitress severally search for signs of the body of their beloved among the personal effects unearthed by the Army's activities.
Review:
Typically talky and low-key treatment of a subject rarely tackled in the cinema (cf. the director's film Laisser passer, about the French film industry during the Occupation). Nothing terribly dramatic happens at all, and yet we are drawn into the inner lives of these two characters of the soldier and widow, as they re-learn how to live and love after the deep trauma of war. Noiret is superb as the punctilious functionary, forever spouting statistics but never losing sight of the personal cost behind them; Azéma, replacing Fanny Ardant late in the day, is at once fiery and haughty as the widow secretly long since resigned to her loss.
(Life and Nothing But)
Country: FR
Technical: col/scope 134m
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Cast: Philippe Noiret, Sabine Azéma, Michel Duchaussoy
Synopsis:
Two years after the Great War a commandant working to account for the thousands of missing combatants is called upon by the ministry to provide candidates for the tomb of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe. Meanwhile a widow and a waitress severally search for signs of the body of their beloved among the personal effects unearthed by the Army's activities.
Review:
Typically talky and low-key treatment of a subject rarely tackled in the cinema (cf. the director's film Laisser passer, about the French film industry during the Occupation). Nothing terribly dramatic happens at all, and yet we are drawn into the inner lives of these two characters of the soldier and widow, as they re-learn how to live and love after the deep trauma of war. Noiret is superb as the punctilious functionary, forever spouting statistics but never losing sight of the personal cost behind them; Azéma, replacing Fanny Ardant late in the day, is at once fiery and haughty as the widow secretly long since resigned to her loss.
(Life and Nothing But)
Country: FR
Technical: col/scope 134m
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Cast: Philippe Noiret, Sabine Azéma, Michel Duchaussoy
Synopsis:
Two years after the Great War a commandant working to account for the thousands of missing combatants is called upon by the ministry to provide candidates for the tomb of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe. Meanwhile a widow and a waitress severally search for signs of the body of their beloved among the personal effects unearthed by the Army's activities.
Review:
Typically talky and low-key treatment of a subject rarely tackled in the cinema (cf. the director's film Laisser passer, about the French film industry during the Occupation). Nothing terribly dramatic happens at all, and yet we are drawn into the inner lives of these two characters of the soldier and widow, as they re-learn how to live and love after the deep trauma of war. Noiret is superb as the punctilious functionary, forever spouting statistics but never losing sight of the personal cost behind them; Azéma, replacing Fanny Ardant late in the day, is at once fiery and haughty as the widow secretly long since resigned to her loss.