Des hommes

Indispensable for understanding France and the French, and for understanding what the grandfathers (the men who were 20 at the start of the 1960s) taught their children and grandchildren and which still permeate their ideas and attitudes today particularly towards foreigners and in particular foreigners from the Maghreb and Africa in general. But the film will not interest those who have no idea about the Algerian war.

Gérard Depardieu gives here a powerful performance as a nasty guy, at a scale that I never seen him like this before. It is difficult, at first sight, to feel any empathy for him in this painful story, about French Algerian war and its consequences on people, the scars, wounds that would never heal. It is a very sensitive film, made by a convincing Lucas Belvaux. I think that the overall writing looks like a TV movie for evening program, not a big screen material. I have seen tons of topics like this made for TV industry. But that remains interesting to watch, to try to understand untold relationships between folks in the same family. The last French movie talking of this period, but from another angle, was QU'UN SANG IMPUR. But the latest was maybe less didactic than this one. Lucas Belvaux wants to bring some light on untold aspects on this awful war, and it doesn't spare the French Army. Useful for anyone interested in this period.