The Fighters - Addestramento di vita

Starring Adele Haenel and Kevin Azais

Written by Thomas Cailley and Claude Le Pape

Directed by Thomas Cailley

It's a while since I've watched a foreign subtitled movie and this is one of those hidden gems that you sometimes find on the TV listings.

It's a boy meets girl romance with a difference. It's quirky, wonderfully understated and quite mesmerizing to watch. This is a gentle film without any big plots or car chases but I really enjoyed it. It's well written with a nice touch of humour throughout.

Good film.

8/10

I saw this movie with my high school (I'm French, so I apologize if I make any languages mistakes), and really liked it.

The actors really did a great job, and during the whole movie, their acting seemed really natural. The characters have very different points of view on the future and group life. Madeleine is trying to be self-sufficient in expectation of the apocalyptic future she believes in. To Arnaud, future means the end of the summer, and in the first part of the movie, his family takes the decisions for him. Even though, their love-story is believable, and Adèle Haenel and Kevin Azaïs made a great on-screen couple ! Also, the score is really lively and goes well with the movie. This movie is very different of most of the recent French movies, and it's a good thing if it worked, I hope it will stimulate others French directors to make different movies.

A really good first long time feature for Thomas Cailley, and I encourage everyone to see "Love at first fight" ! To me, it doesn't deserve a 8 or more out of 10, but this is a different movie from what we are used to see. Sometimes, this movie is a comedy, or a rom com, but it also is a movie about the army and the survival in a wild place.

There seems to be some confusion regarding the genre of this film. Both Wikipedia and the film's official website claim it to be a romantic comedy. While there is a faint streak of romance in here, comedy only peeks inside a couple times from the far window.

In this coming-of-age story about two wanderers, played exceptionally by Haenel and Azais, the point made is that of survival. Sampling metaphor in its most basic form, the lead characters explore the idea of survival in a world which is ever inching closer to extinction. At least that's what one of them thinks. That living life by not doing anything specific is what survival means, remarks the other, eventually giving rise to a romantic connexion.

The story is well-written and is driven forward with brilliant use of electronic music and an even pace. However, the story turns flat towards the end, making the whole setup look like it was all about letting the characters fall in love, which in the Hollywood happens just after two pints of beer.

I might have chuckled a couple times, but that's it. So people who are expecting to laugh out should check their options. Otherwise, it is a delightful drama which will most probably bring a smile on your face. The depiction of nature is also enchanting.

BOTTOM LINE: Love at First Fight will be an enjoyable ride to those who seek pleasure in nature, small things, and blooming romance.

GRADE: C+. A good afternoon watch.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? NO

Nudity/Sex: Medium

One more "Boy Meets Girl" story? Just another Rom-Com? Not really. First things first, you will never prevent boys from meeting girls and the reverse, so there will always be love stories and thank heaven for them when they manage to rise above the clichés and the cheesiness too many of them bathe in. A defect mercifully avoided by this particular affair of the heart. A mere look at the title ("Les Combattants" - literally "The Fighters" -) is an obvious guarantee that you will be spared the stale old exasperating Cha Ba Da Ba Da tale. Actually, neither the characters nor the situation are conventional or predictable. Take our young Romeo for example: Arnaud is a young carpenter who does not show any real passion for his trade. Docile, mild-mannered and easy-going, he takes life as it comes; in other words he still has to find himself. For her part Madeleine, the girl he meets, has little in common with the frail, sensitive Juliet. Three adjectives best qualify her: brusque, burly and nihilistic. Completely out of this world, the horsey lady has an obsession: mastering survival skills in order to... get through the end of the world! As you can see, not the standard Rom-Com, all the more as the stereotypical gender roles are reversed: Miss Headstrong is the dominant one while Mr. Least Line of Resistance yields and follows... at least for a time.

For all the rhetoric, though, this is a love story. Even if it looks just the opposite. Even if it is set in a more and more unusual context as the minutes pass. And it is precisely the odd settings and the crazy story developments that prevent boredom. Unique in its kind "Les combattants' has romance bloom... within the framework of a training session for wannabee paratroopers and, a little later, in the middle of a survival experience in the grip of untamed nature!

Nothing wishy-washy to fear as you can see. On the contrary in the end you will have been told the touchingly serious story of two creatures who attract each other but have to struggle to find who they really are and to make out how they can relate to each other satisfyingly. Another quality of Thomas Cailley and Claude Le Pape's screenplay, lies in the fact the two characters, a bit caricatural at the beginning, evolve in the course of the action and gain in depth. The last added value is the film's interesting examination of what it is like to be young in today's France, a country once prosperous and proud of itself which now seems to have lost its bearings. Both Madeleine and Arnaud, each in their manner, are disoriented and do not know where they are going. A statement that, by extension, can be applied to a big share of French youth and brings the movie a rich sociological touch.

Always where you least expect him, Thomas Cailley succeeds in combining several genres (documentary, comedy, romance, psychological study, army movie, disaster movie) without ever sinking into confusion. So much so that "Les combattants" appears as a unique example of its kind. Well-served by its actors (delusively bland Kevin Azaïs and always under pressure Adèle Haenel), it will surprise and amuse you while giving you - Thank God in a casual way - food for thought.

I much enjoyed this comedy drama movie. Mostly because of the convincing characters, especially the gal with men manners but so glamorous from a certain point of view. I loved her character. A Young woman in search of herself. Some exquisite sequences when the Young folks are voluntarily drafted. A pretty good try as a first long time feature for the Young director.

Made on locations in the South of France, at least I guess. A movie that doesn't tire you at all. No length. You have the feeling that it only lasts one hour.

A story that makes you think about the meaning of life, as the characters do for themselves. A film that also gives you a good feeling, a magic one towards nature. That's the way I felt this feature. But maybe I am wrong, maybe this was not the true message.