Une Vie Violente

Ken Loach or Xavier Durringer could have made this feature that looks very like their cinema. THis is a sort of document, although being a fiction but highly inspired by actual events. Everybody knows that Corsica is a sort of French Sicily, an island where manhood is very important, as honor, land love, violence, brutality. We could say it is a didactic movie but I think the director says everything about the facts as they really occurred and the audiences can make their own opinion. It is well explained that the authentic independence fighters are like communist fighters before Stalin arrives, they don't believe in wealth or power, but only in justice, salvation and safety of their own father land. Their worst enemies are not the French government but first the Corsican mob, who ONLY believes in money, business, estate business, meaning billions and meaning the lost of Corsica identity. Independent fighters put the mob traffic and racket business in jeopardy, so the French government, of course, is too much glad to "help" the gangsters, the underworld, to get rid of the Corsican nationalists who can be a pain in the ass for the French politicians. And Corsica is also on the road of corruption, of nationwide bribery, as in Sicily, because of the near to be maffia, the Corsican underworld, andcertainly not the true authentic Nationalists who are some kind ofidealistic fighters for a lost in advance desperate war. Very good movie.

This movie made me write my first review and for all the wrong reasons. The story telling is lacking weight, I did not feel emotionally engaged with the main character for several reasons: the dialogs were just people fighting and and spewing political mambo jambo, the one dimensional characters only emotion was anger, there were too many secondary characters which were just interchangeable and there was no attempt of creating a connection with the main character to care for any of them. I did not care for the story of Stephan because the director did not make me care for this character, I was just hoping that he would get killed so the movie would be over. The timeline was also confusing as there were no establishing shots to know where we were, suddenly we are in prison and the next shot we are in a bar without knowing why. I think this was a very interesting story that just missed all the marks in storytelling.

Wonderful but you have to know a little the Corsica history

Despite being threatened to death, Stéphane decides to come back to Corsica and attend his friend's and fellow fighter's funeral. Why is he sentenced to death ? How can a nice fellow, bourgeois of Bastia end up to be threatened by the mafia ? What was his journey, from a vague interest in independentist theories to political radicalism ? Thierry de Peretti the director, native from Corsica, tries to give an explanation, and delivers a subtle description of Coriscans, independentists and others, old fighters of the 70's and the new generation of 90's, full or realism and rythm. It brings out a very intersting story of a youngster (Stéphane) of the 90's, slightly lost, and slightly rebel at his age, craving to have a cause to live and to stand up for, who ends up militating for an alternative independentism whose values seem to be nobler than the old independentism. A descent into the depths of militancy, enlistment and fanatism, full of realism, simplicity. A modern tale of our youth craving for ideology - a really good surprise !