L'Incroyable Histoire du facteur Cheval

This film based on real facts is incredibly powerful and moving. The relationship to his daughter Alice is the key to understand all what Cheval did. It's for her he will build this incredible palace. Most of the time he never speaks to anybody, but with Alice, the words spill out of his heart. He share with her his poetic vision of the world, full of legends, lost civilizations, ans symbolism. The way Cheval dies at the end of the movie is just so beautiful and moving... It's the most beautiful death of cinema history! Cheval was found of symbols, and interstingly enough, he died at the age of 88, symbol of eternity, and it took him 33 years to build his palace, the age of Christ. I like to believe that this was not just a coincidence...

At the end of the 19th century, Joseph Ferdinand Cheval is a simple letter carrier who travelled the Drôme from village to village every day. Lonely, he is upset when he meets the woman of his life, Philomène. From their union is born Alice. For this child whom he loves more than anything else, Cheval throws himself into a crazy bet: to build for her with his own hands, an incredible palace. Never spared from life's trials, this ordinary man will not give up and will devote 33 years to build an extraordinary work: "The Ideal Palace".

Joseph-Ferdinand Cheval, a postman in the rural département of Drôme, was undoubtedly entitled to a biopic. Derided at first like Le Douanier Rousseau, Séraphine de Senlis, Antonio Ligabue and many others, he is now lauded for what he is really worth, a major figure of "naïve art", a "school" bringing together artists having no notion of being artists, and all the more admirable for that. Cheval was a devoted public agent, walking from one isolated farm to another, covering come rain or come shine, twenty miles a day. He went through particularly hard times (losing several loved ones, falling into depression) but nothing ultimately prevented him from completing the work of his life, his "Palais idéal", a huge monument made of pebbles and stones collected during his routes to which he added various other elements, the whole thing assembled together apparently at random, at any rate not abiding by the laws of architecture. Inspired by a photo of the Angkor Vat temple he once saw in a magazine, the amazing work of his life has survived the years and is visited yearly by hundreds of thousands of people. Nils Tavernier obviously admires Cheval and his unique creation and it shows. He also loves both the place and time his hero lived and worked. The viewer is thus treated to beautiful views of the rolling landscape around Hauterives, and at various times of the year, alternating with realistic rural interiors. Hence a feeling of total immersion in the Cheval's everyday environment. Kudos to production designer Jérémy Duchier, costume designer Thierry Delettre and cinematographer Vincent Gallot who helped Tavernier to capture the reality of the 1880-1920 period. Gallot's contribution is particularly noticeable in the magic final sequence where Cheval, at the very end of his life, dances with... his (then dead) daughter. The main asset of the film though is Jacques Gamblin, exceptional as le Facteur Cheval. Totally invested in his role, he manages to make the rather autisitic postman/artist decipherable and therefore touching and engaging. Often silent or inarticulate, stammering, with bird-like head movements, Gamblin renders to perfection Cheval's uncommon attitudes often mistaken by others for haughtiness or lack of empathy. Without many lines to say or climactic scenes to play, the actor nonetheless manages to impose his character, gradually making us close to someone seeming so aloof at first. Great art indeed. Likewise, Nils Tavernier avoids any spectacular and easy effects, which proves more and more winning as the story unfurls. Like a wide river, the film moves slowly, regularly but more and more powerfully, throwing you into something close to a state of meditation. You will not be captivated like by a thriller but if you play the game you won't lose out in the affair, instead you will gradually become part of a whole world to which you no longer have access today. Accompanied by a melodious music by Baptiste and Pierre Colleu, "L'Incroyable histoire du facteur Cheval" is much better than the lazy biopic certain reviewers, systematically allergic to the genre, have tried to reduce it.

In this case, the sense of beautiful is only discovered in yourself. No definitions. Sure, the acting - and Jacques Gamblin is just amazing- , sure, Laetitia Casta, the real story, the palace itself, the cinematography, the story, the similitaries with near reality situations, the delicate humor, the old fashion slices . But the essential escapes to every word. A film as seed of a special state. A just beautiful one, in the most simple - convincing manner and the memories about Sagrada Familia.

The kind of movie that is very moving! A film that respects the intelligence of moviegoers: things can be guessed at, without the director feeling obliged to point them out to us in broad strokes, thus respecting the moviegoers who are going to see the film. The photography is remarkable, the performance of all the actors and actresses is sublime and the makeup work (aging) is perfect. The music, not bad but too ordinary compared to the whole, inhabits the scenes a little too much. We come away moved, overwhelmed and, despite everything, imbued with a feeling of tenderness towards humanity. A great film!

Just watched this story on TV with little to tell me what it was about.

It is quite amazing but also a little slow and rather sombre. In my youth I spend a holiday camp in the 'departement' de la Drome, however I did not recognise anything and further more the epoch is really way before my time!

Yes somehow I found it rather depressing but was rather mesmerised by this character resillience who however had mostly burried is feelings and emotions deep inside himself.

What saved the story for me was the fact it is a true story.

I left the country I think the year Andre Malraux made an official recognition of this extraordinary work.

I think he got it right when he stated that he was not for this world. Yet he was loved by some as he was and he really deserved it.

Well worth watching.