La terre des hommes

A powerful movie with an exceptional cast. Diane Rouxel is especially excellent. No wonder this film got so many awards. A director to watch!

I thought about PETIT PAYSAN and AU NOM DE LA TERRE, two other major movies speaking of French peasants struggle to survive. It is realistic, tough, gripping. All long the film, you have the feeling to see actual life, dialogues, behavior, real people and not actors. Olivier Gourmet is always excellent in a any character, whom any person could recognize himself in. It is a social rural topic. It could have been a TV feature, the typical kind of topic destined to home audiences.

The fight of a young woman for keep the farm of her father. A fight for survive, in which the world of men, the cold manipulation, the lost and the revenge, the fiercy and the determination are basic parts.

A story far to be new or spectacular. But well crafted, scene by scene, served by the admirable portrait of father, proposed by Olivier Gourmet and, especially, by admirable performance of Diane Rouxel. Few scenes, from the party for noce and the tension of looking for Bruno, like the licitation for Constance are more than impressive.

A film about vulnerability of men and about the huge courage of a young woman, knowing, after the fall of innocence and its illusions, the fair way.

"La terre des hommes " belongs to this series of films which depicted the plight of the farmers ,these who feed the nation and who are too often overlooked by all the governments : it compares favorably with "petit paysan" and "au nom de la terre " .

But check the title,which speaks volumes about its subject : the MEN's land ,there's something macho in this title;Constance is told that it's not a job for her (a sentence which is heard in "le goût des merveilles" when a female farmer is told that she won't be able to run her property by a banker); the most impressive scene -almost unbearable-is when constance is locked up in a enclosure and "sold by auction" .

Constance and her husband have really a good plan : to work in an ecological way and to avoid the mass marketing ,namely the supermarkets. Although they are on the verge of bankrupcy , the SAFER (French Rural Land Agency) is supposed to support their plan which holds water , but their file lacks a paper.

Sylvain, a false friend , an influential guy in the negotiations, takes advantage of the young woman's anguish and bewilderment to have sexual relations with her ; this is an ambiguous rape, is Constance willing , does she think (likelier) that he can pull strings for them?

Acting is very good ,particularly Diane Rouxel , who will beat her enemy at his own game ; and the always reliable Olivier Gourmet ,whose part is too underwritten : he steals the show in the dance to Gilbert Bécaud"s "le jour où la pluie viendra" .