Médecin de campagne

Jean-Pierre is a grumpy doctor who falls sick and his way to cope with bad news is to ignore them. He works in the countryside with younger female doctor Nathalie and their patients are very realistic country people.

The story is simple and treated with realism. Perhaps a bit slow moving, but moving in the right direction. Jean-Pierre goes out of his way to get an elderly patient out of the hospital, so that he can die at home, with his dog. Not the sort of scene easy to digest, but nevertheless part of a doctor's life.

When Jean-Pierre conditions are not improving, he doesn't want to pursue further treatment. My interpretation is that he has nothing to live for... until - as to be expected - something starts to grow between Jean-Pierre and Nathalie and with that, a will to live.

A quiet, somber movie without the usual French excesses. Well worth watching.

To urban eyes, the rural doctor stereotype is a walking museum of what village medicine used to look like in bygone days. French filmmakers excel in portraying this endangered species and they have done so yet again in the delightful character-rich film The Country Doctor (2016) (Médecin de campagne). To enhance our sense of the fading rural life, the story is framed around a doctor whose own time is fading as the irreplaceable linchpin of his village community.

Made by medic-turned-director Thomas Lilti, the plot is best described as a series of insightful vignettes of rural medicine practised the old-fashioned way. The greatly admired Dr Jean-Pierre (François Cluzet) has been caring for the village most of his life and now learns that he has a life- threatening tumour. Ordered to slow down for treatment, medical authorities send an assistant doctor, Nathalie Delezia (Marianne Denicourt) who quickly proves unnervingly competent and willing to lighten his load. Predictably, Jean-Pierre does not take well to losing his role as sole-carer for the village and mischievously makes things difficult for her. He sends her into farms and homes with known annoyances to discourage her from staying, but when she proves her worth in medical emergencies he is forced to accept her help. As his prognosis worsens, the growing respect between them becomes noticeably warmer as they both confront an uncertain future.

In many respects, this story is a predictable cluster of clichés made attractive by a picturesque rural setting captured perfectly with camera-work sympathetic to its natural beauty. Like in many countries, a rural doctor's life is a public script of farmyard and roadside accidents, comforting home visits, and a surgery full of patiently waiting regulars with ailments both serious and small. The village community adores their doctor and the doctor in turn is a caring father to all. But this is a film where the simple plot and its constructions are less important than its characterisations. François Cluzet is France's version of Dustin Hoffman, an actor who radiates open warmth, compassion and understanding. His almost musical face can express emotion with a single note consisting of a slight raising of an eyelid, or a wry turn of a lip that hints of a smile, or a faintly furrowed brow that speaks concern. Marianne Denicourt is perfectly cast as the late blooming nurse turned doctor, whose big eyes converse at first hesitantly then warmly with the reluctant senior medic. While the plot may be clichéd, their relationship has none of the conventional hallmarks of romance. Indeed, it is only in the final minutes that we sense their comfort in one another's presence.

This is a fine example of classic French romantic drama. It is totally driven by characterisation that is earthy, understated and open-hearted with a rich rural aesthetic that evokes the mutual dependencies that are typical amongst country people. It speaks of the unstated and unseen organic wholeness of community that is rare in urban life. It is also a film where most viewers leave with an unmistakable smile.

Nothing innovative, but with a sensitivity, simplicity that enchant, a cute and delicious cake recipe to taste... More of the same, but with a touch of purity, an abrupt ending, almost imperceptible, beautiful and happy, delicate and adorable...

When you get a good movie, that is a good story, with good actors and the whole thing knits together with no real nasties, then you finish the film in some frustration because it needed to go on another hour or so, so that you can wallow in the good feeling it gives out. Real people is the theme, real situations and no horrid surprises out of the blue. I enjoy this genre of French films, I wish other countries could grasp the idea of escapism that is quite realistic - so that life could be like this. Some familiar faces from other movies, as ever the beautiful French countryside stars too. I'm off to buy the dvd.

This is old school French cinema,which displays an humanism recalling Christian-Jaque or even the sometimes unfairly demeaned Jean-Paul Le Chanois.And Except for the rather unlikely abrupt happy end ,it works from start to finish: it is definitely the kind of the movie we are in need of today : it's not overtly optimistic -like the feel-good movies which mar the contemporary French scene : however Marianne Denicourt's warm smile can lighten the darkest night;François Cluzet's commitment to his work is extraordinary : the first sequences ,consisting of very short scenes ,show it all .But ,in an admirable sequence ,exhausted and disheartened ,Werner tells his colleague (us )how hard his prestigious occupation always involves sufferings,death: nature( some people call God) may be a wonderful thing ,but it(He ) makes mistakes or even monstrosities and our task is to correct them.

And correct ,mend ,both of them do: the old man dies in his home ,and he could not ask for more;the boy who passes for a half-wit may be an autistic with an exceptional memory -he is a scholar,as far as WW1 is concerned-: someday ,he may learn to read and to write .So it's not overtly pessimistic either.It's life and life only.There's a wonderful truce in their ceaseless fight ,when the people dance to Cohen's "Hallelujah",a moment when an infinite tenderness emanates from the fete .

It does not always avoid clichés:the first Cluzet/Denicourt confrontation follows the usual pattern: seasoned veteran/modern rookie,it's the same old song ,be they militaries, cops,teachers,or physicians : see the scene of the ganders ("put their beak into their a........");and Cluzet's family is cliché itself.And Nina Simone's superb "wild is the wind" does not fit the bill in that context as well as Cohen's song as a finale .

But after 15 minutes ,the movie hits its stride ,and the words often rings true;except for an old TV series ("Cecilia Medecin De Campagne", sixties),a whole movie was never devoted to the country docs' thankless work in France,and it's much to Thomas Lilti's credit to have broached the subject ,with a valid documentary side which is never dull,thanks to the two principals .Both will win you over.

It's life and life only;as the good old French cinema I like was.