La chambre des officiers

Aside from being cheese eating surrender monkeys, I'm starting to think the French make some of the best films around. This is a searingly honest, devastatingly unflinching look at young men coping with life changing facial injuries during the early 20th century while at war. There's no mollycoddling here... everyone thinks these once handsome guys now look like freaks, and even most of their former friends and family want nothing to with them. Lacking in self-confidence due to their appearances, the hospital for them is their prison, and they entertain thoughts of self-harm and suicide daily. Their only company is a few sympathetic nurses and a doctor who's bedside manner consists of a few unhelpful platitudes. Life for them will never be the same again, but worse than their respective mutilations may be the despair...

Not a foot is put wrong, not a single minute is wasted in this brilliant drama, as our lead, who is scarred by an explosion on the battlefield, must learn to adapt to a new life as well as people's perceptions of him. Without a jawbone he can't even speak, and is forced to write everything down with a piece of chalk on a blackboard. Him and his fellow patients survive on games of cards and gallows humour, while stuck in this dingy building. It's powerful stuff, and I was transfixed throughout at the plight of all the characters, on whom I must say the make up was fantastic... You'd almost believe it was a documentary. But of course it couldn't be... you can't film in colour something that took place 100 years ago. DUH. Anyway, this is a work of art I'll remember for a long time, and I'd advise ALL of you to see it. You ALL won't, though. Your loss.... 9/10

Based upon a true story which reportedly happened to the novelist's ancestor, "la chambre des officiers" is a strong manifesto against war.The first third of the movie (before Adrien leaves his bed) strongly recalls Dalton Trumbo's masterpiece "Johnny got his gun" but with a weaker direction.The voice over ,the nurse and the visit of the secretary,not to mention the "dream" about the deer ,everything reminds me of "Johnny ..." (1971).But the movie hits its stride afterward ,and,despite of overlong sequences ,grabs the audience till the end when two wonderful sequences (the one with the little girl in the metro (=subway),then the last sequence with the woman who repeats "you're no monster")preserve the viewer from despair.

Whereas war movies have often displayed maimed soldiers,they have rarely (if they have)shown disfigured fighters.In the hospital ,we catch glimpses of the outside world only from the windows;"From a distance,one of the unfortunate victims says ,we all look the same".And when the war's over,the 11th of November 1918,the hero is the only one who does not rejoice.Because His war is not over:it has only begun.And these last sequences ,as I said above, are the most poignant of the entire movie.

"La chambre des officiers" was first a best-seller;it was written by an engineer who had never published anything before.

This could have been an easy soppy boring film, but it's not, absolutely not ! It's a film full of humanity, of hope, love, and confidence in life. Of course, many scenes are tragic, unbearable but those "broken faces" can also make us laugh and believe in life... It's also a very interesting historical testimony of those hidden victims of the 1st World War... and though the film never enter into political debates, it's a real plea for peace. A great great film !

The Officer's Ward is compelling insight into the horrors of The Great War which will have you rivetted to the screen.

Eric Caravaca is the engineer in the French army who's face is badly disfigured by a bomb blast at the outset of the First World War.

Destined to spend the rest of the war in a Paris hospital where doctors attempt to reconstruct his face, the film focuses on his thoughts, experiences, relationships with other patients in a similar situation, and his struggle for acceptance by his family and society.

Where in the wrong hands the film could have ended up a soppy and sentimental mess, Francois Dupeyron handles proceedings with sensitivity, dignity, and not does not rely on the initial extent of his injuries for shock value. We don't see his face for nearly an hour into the film, so the only indication as to the extent of his injuries is from the reactions of the hospital staff.

Good performances all round, and a stirring condemnation of warfare, and salute to the power of the human spirit

8 out of 10

'How Can You Live With Yourself When You Cannot Look At Yourself...' This is a superb film. It makes me sad and angry. This is one of the great classic anti war movies. When you like Al quiet on the western front, Gallipoli and La vie et rien d'autre you most definitely should see this film!!! Beautiful cinematography, lighting, camera, great acting and story / script. The director (François Dupeyron) made a moving picture. I hadn't seen a movie about world war I victims that have disfigured faces. But I read books about it. The look of Frankensteins monster is based upon these

men. The horror of this world war has had is effect on not only film, but art and daily life as well. This was the first war with weapons of mass destruction,

revolutionary weapons. But medicine and surgery advanced as well. So this war has created living monsters. This movie shows how these monsters survived

during and after the war.

SUPERB FILM!!! I rated 9.