Ao Amanhecer

Mildly interesting story about a young husband and father, dissatisfied with his life, who decides to start afresh and learn a new job as a construction jig operator by going to a 16 weeks training class. While his relationship with his family get strained, he befreinds a young misfit with a passion, if not the skills, for big machinery. Good acting and good eye for details.

A curious movie. Very French in that it is totally gay, yet that is never given in the film. A man (Le Bihan) grows tired of his life in Paris, quits his job, and enrolls in bulldozer school - where he meets a nice-looking but dim dweeb to whom he is inexplicably attracted. The rather butch wife becomes less & less important (she's also found someone else), and as time goes by, he becomes more and more involved in helping the dweeb cope with both life and school. No sex, not even a hint about what is going on, except for a shower scene where he allows the dweeb to be beaten, and some understated dialogue about "queers" from fellow students that is curiously ignored.

Le Bihan is marvelous as a man who doesn't know what is happening to him. He just can't figure it out - why this, why this guy, why these feelings. He copes, even at the end, and though nothing has ever been said, you know exactly what has happened. Depending on how you look at this film, either terribly simple, or terribly subtle. A good watch regardless.

The kind of French drama that I always like. I admit it looks like a TV drama, but very well made, sensitive, poignant, the story of a strange relationship between two men. I never thought of the maybe gay message, the gay element between those two characters. I found this story very unusual, gripping. I regularely watch it from time to time, every five or six yeats since 1999 now. I don't think it was a success in movie theaters, but I don't care. I like such plots, so close to real human lives and feelings. If only we could have more of those intelligent, brilliant movies. Samuel Le Bihan awesome.

I saw this movie in 2000 and it left an impression that has stayed with me ever since. As mentioned in the review, it's about a man shedding the shackles of his successful life, and trying to find some meaning in his life. The movie chronicles the struggles, friendships and confusion of men with rare insight, without being overly sentimental. The images I especially loved were those of the big machines that they are learning to operate-- the filmmaker gives them a graceful ballet-like quality, and you see that the operation and love of these machines has more to do with beauty than you might realize. As a woman, I never really understood the fascination men have with big cranes and bulldozers, but this movie opened my eyes in a way I will never forget. I loved this movie and wish so much that it was on DVD so I could share it with my friends.