La France

I would not have watched this film had I known it was a musical. Not my genre. There are only four songs and they are mercifully not too long. They were recorded live while shooting and the compositions have an odd unpolished quality.

It's 1917 in northern France. A company of eleven French soldiers, including a lieutenant, are moving through the countryside. A woman impersonating a man succeeds in joining the company. While the mission of the company is not immediately revealed, the woman is on a quest to find her husband, also a soldier at the front, whose whereabouts are unknown. The film is taken up by the journey of those twelve characters.

The war is near but battles don't make it to the screen. You may see some smoke, hear the sound of cannons and explosions, and see a few dead bodies. The war is context but it's depiction is not central. The stress is on the men of the company and the interloper they have adopted.

The musical numbers are surreal interludes. Out of the blue makeshift instruments appear, mostly string, a piano once and a clarinet. Obviously the soldiers are not carrying them around. It's fanciful and it rubbed me in the wrong way.

That wanders aimlessly behind WW1 lines. Almost zero signs of WW1, No rations, No water, three sightings of Germans how did she get behind German lines? The woman faking kills a German lookout? WTF. And it gets even more cray cray after that.. Faker woman is/was going to the front to get her husband to desert. And best goof was cadet shot found floating down the river to next scene completely dry. Or the random meeting husband escaped from Belgium prisoner of war camp..

I aim the title at any who have seen this movie and had friends remind them that their mouth was hanging open as they viewed. To potential new viewers, let these remarks serve as a warning.

I will say that the musical element of the film was actually quite charming and wonderful in an absurd sort of way. It had absolutely nothing to do with the story line and initially contributed to our confusion. We soon abandoned all hope of understanding why anything occurred, but the musical interludes were always welcome.

Heaven forbid you are amongst a group or encounter others who feel the movie is worthy of analysis or discussion beyond: "What the hell was THAT all about?" It had some interesting moments, but since they never really contributed to understanding, I had to limit my rating to 3 stars.

I saw this with a large audience at the Seattle Int. Film Festival, a fairly sophisticated and accepting group of aficionados. Many still had mouths agape even as we filed out of the theater, as their disbelief and confusion was not easily overcome.

the different image of war. heroic but in special form. cruel in a profound sense. but, more important, delicate portrait of love, duty, sacrifice and happiness. the grace. to present the small details of life, without victories or fight scenes. to use symbols and vulnerabilities of characters - only ordinary people. to use each level of story for image of fragile, vulnerable and beautiful universe, a woman and few men in middle of strange events, the emotions are only tool for define the sense of existence, the frame of hope. more than a film, a splendid poem . one of the rare pieces who do not has ambition to impress. only create seed for reflection.

A curious little picture of fantasy that think was for the most part well done. Not super compelling or anything to rave about but completely watchable. Clearly not for everyone esp. those who need a more concrete narrative with absolute believability.