★ 8 / 10
**How a Film is Made** Here is a
Atilio Nalerio
**How a Film is Made** Here is a film crafted with pure talent, overflowing creativity, an exceptional cast, and dazzling camera work. The director—who also…
**How a Film is Made**
Here is a film crafted with pure talent, overflowing creativity, an exceptional cast, and dazzling camera work.
The director—who also stars in it and wrote the screenplay, adapting a novel—Albert Dupontel has the virtue of telling us, in a comedic tone (sometimes employing dark humor), the drama of the war's forgotten, the "cannon fodder" of armies who are neglected and abandoned by officers, the healthcare system, governments, and a whole network of scoundrels who profit from the postwar. Fortunately, neither the synopsis nor the trailer reveals or suggests anything about the plot, which is very, very original. I believe this film should be seen with the least possible plot information, because the novel by Pierre Lemaitre has been transferred to the screenplay with great ingenuity, and any development of the plot in a review would diminish the magic the story possesses. Let's say, broadly speaking, there is a sequential thread of characters who do not appear in vain from the beginning and who later fit into a virtuous circle, making the ending a brilliantly resolved mechanism for the film to conclude as it began. Perhaps the screenplay can be criticized for its psychologically abrupt definitions (the bad guys are extremely bad, the good guys are victims) and for its somewhat implausible coincidences, but if you engage with the mirror game the director proposes, you can likely overlook this Manichaeism and be fascinated by the offering.
As a co-star, the Argentine Nahuel Pérez Bizcayart delivers a dazzling performance using only his eyes and hands, as he is almost always under some kind of mask. The special effects are frankly magnificent and serve a camera in permanent, dizzying crane shots that rise and fall to show us mass scenes (the 3 sequence shots at the beginning are anthological), allowing for a reconstruction of the era that would be impossible to achieve without using superimpositions.
The cinematography and music captivate you, and as if that were not enough, it has one of the most emotional endings I will remember forever. A true feast for the senses, a work that will move your spirit and feelings, and which I warmly recommend.
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★ 8 / 10
An extremely stylish film showing remarkable cinematographic creati...
AstroNoud
An extremely stylish film showing remarkable cinematographic creativity and vision, even if the story does not truly measure up to the visuals. 8/10
An extremely stylish film showing remarkable cinematographic creativity and vision, even if the story does not truly measure up to the visuals.
8/10
★ 8 / 10
Albert Dupontel, a big leaguer now.
guy-bellinger
November 1919. Two survivors of the trenches meet. One, Edouard Péricourt, the son of a good family disfigured during the conflict, is a genius draftsman, the…
November 1919. Two survivors of the trenches meet. One, Edouard Péricourt, the son of a good family disfigured during the conflict, is a genius draftsman, the other, Albert Maillard, is a modest accountant. They join forces to set up a war memorial scam.
Albert Dupontel became known for his crazy and squeaky comedies, not to everyone's taste. Voluntarily poorly made at the beginning, his biting comedies gradually gained in artistic quality. For example, the film "Neuf mois ferme", which preceded this one, was already distinguished by its elaborate direction and impressive formal finds, which only made the satirical background more abrasive. He does even better with "Au revoir là-haut", a very successful adaptation of Pierre Lemaître's best-selling novel. A dazzling opening sequence, brilliant craftsmanship, a convincing period reconstruction, and high-quality special effects: Albert Dupontel brilliantly confirms that he has become a major filmmaker.
What'is great is that being at the helm of a superproduction does mean he renounces his convictions: in this film co-written with Pierre Lemaître, as in others of which he is the sole author, he questions conformism, hypocrisy and authoritarianism while praising, as a good self-respecting anarchist, personal morality and the responsible individual's recourse to his own resources. Dupontel's main target is the self-righteousness of the time (the grandiloquent whining about the dead of 14-18, whose massacre is made up under the more presentable names of heroism and sacrifice) end the least we can say is that he bites home. Through his "sacrilegious heroes," he asks a question to which everyone will answer in their own way: who is more guilty, the two crooks, a gifted artist with a broken face and a crafty entrepreneur forsaken by the authorities, or those who turned hundreds of thousands of young people full of life into cannon fodder?
The cast is excellent and without wanting to insult the spirit of the troupe shown by all the actors, we will nevertheless singularize two performances particularly out of the ordinary: Niels Arestrup as a dominating and icy father and Laurent Lafitte, properly terrifying as a sadistic military man who, after the war, turns into a... sadistic civilian.
A deserved success, both public and critical, for Albert Dupontel, who has now entered the big league.
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94%
TOMATOMETER
· 17 reviews
83%
AUDIENCE
· 100 ratings
7.4/10
12.4K
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Oooh, I saw this film! Pretty good.