La chambre des officiers

Beautiful film, after a difficult (almost unbearable) first half hour in WWI Parisian hospital. Beautiful costumes and settings, great acting...very touching at times.

Really modern with its theme around the physical appearance and the way we accept ourselves and the other's look.

A great tribute to the "gueules cassées" (broken faces) of the World War I.

I rank it among the David Lynch's "Elephant Man", or Van Dormael "the eighth day", both festival winners. No less... 9/10

This is an intensely moving film which tells the story of a young soldier whose face is terribly disfigured during WW1. In hospital, he meets and befriends several other individuals who have suffered the same fate and the film concentrates on the way that they each come to terms with their situation. The first 40 minutes or so is very slow, so if you start to watch it, please don't be put off... stick with it, the rewards are there. Anyone who is not moved by this must have a heart of stone, since the performances are first rate at every level and there are many touching moments throughout the film. You might think that the subject matter is somewhat depressing and indeed, at some points, it is. However, what comes out is that the strength of the human spirit can carry individuals through the most horrendous experiences and as the film reaches its conclusion, it is ultimately uplifting. Any person who appreciates films of high quality will thoroughly enjoy this.

'How Can You Live With Yourself When You Cannot Look At Yourself...' This is a superb film. It makes me sad and angry. This is one of the great classic anti war movies. When you like Al quiet on the western front, Gallipoli and La vie et rien d'autre you most definitely should see this film!!! Beautiful cinematography, lighting, camera, great acting and story / script. The director (François Dupeyron) made a moving picture. I hadn't seen a movie about world war I victims that have disfigured faces. But I read books about it. The look of Frankensteins monster is based upon these

men. The horror of this world war has had is effect on not only film, but art and daily life as well. This was the first war with weapons of mass destruction,

revolutionary weapons. But medicine and surgery advanced as well. So this war has created living monsters. This movie shows how these monsters survived

during and after the war.

SUPERB FILM!!! I rated 9.

Aside from being cheese eating surrender monkeys, I'm starting to think the French make some of the best films around. This is a searingly honest, devastatingly unflinching look at young men coping with life changing facial injuries during the early 20th century while at war. There's no mollycoddling here... everyone thinks these once handsome guys now look like freaks, and even most of their former friends and family want nothing to with them. Lacking in self-confidence due to their appearances, the hospital for them is their prison, and they entertain thoughts of self-harm and suicide daily. Their only company is a few sympathetic nurses and a doctor who's bedside manner consists of a few unhelpful platitudes. Life for them will never be the same again, but worse than their respective mutilations may be the despair...

Not a foot is put wrong, not a single minute is wasted in this brilliant drama, as our lead, who is scarred by an explosion on the battlefield, must learn to adapt to a new life as well as people's perceptions of him. Without a jawbone he can't even speak, and is forced to write everything down with a piece of chalk on a blackboard. Him and his fellow patients survive on games of cards and gallows humour, while stuck in this dingy building. It's powerful stuff, and I was transfixed throughout at the plight of all the characters, on whom I must say the make up was fantastic... You'd almost believe it was a documentary. But of course it couldn't be... you can't film in colour something that took place 100 years ago. DUH. Anyway, this is a work of art I'll remember for a long time, and I'd advise ALL of you to see it. You ALL won't, though. Your loss.... 9/10

The Officer's Ward is compelling insight into the horrors of The Great War which will have you rivetted to the screen.

Eric Caravaca is the engineer in the French army who's face is badly disfigured by a bomb blast at the outset of the First World War.

Destined to spend the rest of the war in a Paris hospital where doctors attempt to reconstruct his face, the film focuses on his thoughts, experiences, relationships with other patients in a similar situation, and his struggle for acceptance by his family and society.

Where in the wrong hands the film could have ended up a soppy and sentimental mess, Francois Dupeyron handles proceedings with sensitivity, dignity, and not does not rely on the initial extent of his injuries for shock value. We don't see his face for nearly an hour into the film, so the only indication as to the extent of his injuries is from the reactions of the hospital staff.

Good performances all round, and a stirring condemnation of warfare, and salute to the power of the human spirit

8 out of 10