Les combattants

Starring Adele Haenel and Kevin Azais

Written by Thomas Cailley and Claude Le Pape

Directed by Thomas Cailley

It's a while since I've watched a foreign subtitled movie and this is one of those hidden gems that you sometimes find on the TV listings.

It's a boy meets girl romance with a difference. It's quirky, wonderfully understated and quite mesmerizing to watch. This is a gentle film without any big plots or car chases but I really enjoyed it. It's well written with a nice touch of humour throughout.

Good film.

8/10

There seems to be some confusion regarding the genre of this film. Both Wikipedia and the film's official website claim it to be a romantic comedy. While there is a faint streak of romance in here, comedy only peeks inside a couple times from the far window.

In this coming-of-age story about two wanderers, played exceptionally by Haenel and Azais, the point made is that of survival. Sampling metaphor in its most basic form, the lead characters explore the idea of survival in a world which is ever inching closer to extinction. At least that's what one of them thinks. That living life by not doing anything specific is what survival means, remarks the other, eventually giving rise to a romantic connexion.

The story is well-written and is driven forward with brilliant use of electronic music and an even pace. However, the story turns flat towards the end, making the whole setup look like it was all about letting the characters fall in love, which in the Hollywood happens just after two pints of beer.

I might have chuckled a couple times, but that's it. So people who are expecting to laugh out should check their options. Otherwise, it is a delightful drama which will most probably bring a smile on your face. The depiction of nature is also enchanting.

BOTTOM LINE: Love at First Fight will be an enjoyable ride to those who seek pleasure in nature, small things, and blooming romance.

GRADE: C+. A good afternoon watch.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? NO

Nudity/Sex: Medium

Trying to balance his summer like many of us do, between working and spending time with friends, Arnaud (Kévin Azaïs) seems largely fixated on this balance over anything romantic or more substantial during his vacation. A wrench in his plan comes in the form of Madeleine (Adèle Haenel), a beautiful and uncommonly athletic woman. Her toned muscles, gorgeous and structured physique, and complete and total self-confidence in herself and her ideas instantly makes her attractive to Arnaud. As he talks to her, whilst doing oddjobs around her home, he begins to realize that she is more original than she lets on; Madeleine is a survivalist, hellbent on being prepared for, what she believes, is an imminent apocalypse destined to wipe out planet Earth and life as we know it. Madeleine prides herself on being one step ahead of everyone around her, and, similar to the way she handles herself, she doesn't really care if you disapprove or can't keep up with her speed.

Arnaud, on the other hand, I feel, embodies a lot of us. He's not carefree, but simply minded in the present. He wants to work to get enough money to do the things he'd like with his friends and it's that simple motivation that gets him in and out of bed each morning. Madeleine's discussion about end times and doomsday prophecies is likely the first time he has ever even considered the possibility of life as he knows it changing in the blink of an eye. He decides to try and school himself by joining Madeleine at a reserve camp of sorts, which will prepare her for the army and her ship date, which is right around the corner. Here, Arnaud will push himself to physical and mental limits, proving to himself and the one he is rapidly falling in love with that he's capable of looking at a bigger picture and committing himself to something rather than letting the world pass by around him.

Thomas Cailley's "Love at First Fight" is rather impressive on a structural note, due to the fact that, as it carries itself, its genre does a full one-eighty. In the very beginning, the film plays like the opening of a Nicholas Sparks film, only a tad moodier, whereas, by the forty-five minute mark, and eventually when the remainder of the film is set at the reserve camp, it becomes a survivalist thriller of sorts. This duality comes off as ostensibly uneven and far-fetched for a film like this, but writer/director Cailley finds a way to make it work because he doesn't rush the development or pace of the film. He moves carefully, illustrating the way characters move and the manner in which they speak, making sure we get the nuances examined before we can even think about jumping ship to another genre.

It's a tricky tactic he handles with serious screen writing conviction, but it would've been nothing without solid performers, which is where Azaïs and Haenel come in. Both young talents exhibit serious acting jobs, though the standout is definitely Haenel. From the moment she steps on screen, you get the feeling that she's not your general idea of a romantic interest, and even by the end of the film, you're not convinced she was ever cut out to be anything other than her own independent woman. The fact that Cailley can etch her into a film like this and simultaneously give her and her character some respect, in addition to never cutting down Haenel's Madeleine's significance as a character is another serious win for the film at hand.

I suppose the sole thing about "Love at First Fight" that had me underwhelmed was its lack of real connection or bite. The film is remarkably tame, especially when you consider other French romances, which throw ideas of political commentary or, at the very least, social ideas into the mix. While I'm not saying it's Cailley's obligation to layer a film with any of those things, it would've made for a more connective experience. In addition, given the fact that there's a bit less dialog between Arnaud and Madeleine that would be called revealing, there's a heavy reliance on a minimalist tone here, which hurts the film's ability to make a viewer connect with the characters at hand.

Having said that, "Love at First Fight" does do some quiet subversion of a genre that has long disappointed, and fuels my point that if people want to see romance films with a bit more layeredness and themes, they'll need to seek out foreign films or the very, very independent films of American cinema, for mainstream American cinema, in this genre at least, is doing nobody any good.

I saw this movie with my high school (I'm French, so I apologize if I make any languages mistakes), and really liked it.

The actors really did a great job, and during the whole movie, their acting seemed really natural. The characters have very different points of view on the future and group life. Madeleine is trying to be self-sufficient in expectation of the apocalyptic future she believes in. To Arnaud, future means the end of the summer, and in the first part of the movie, his family takes the decisions for him. Even though, their love-story is believable, and Adèle Haenel and Kevin Azaïs made a great on-screen couple ! Also, the score is really lively and goes well with the movie. This movie is very different of most of the recent French movies, and it's a good thing if it worked, I hope it will stimulate others French directors to make different movies.

A really good first long time feature for Thomas Cailley, and I encourage everyone to see "Love at first fight" ! To me, it doesn't deserve a 8 or more out of 10, but this is a different movie from what we are used to see. Sometimes, this movie is a comedy, or a rom com, but it also is a movie about the army and the survival in a wild place.

One more "Boy Meets Girl" story? Just another Rom-Com? Not really. First things first, you will never prevent boys from meeting girls and the reverse, so there will always be love stories and thank heaven for them when they manage to rise above the clichés and the cheesiness too many of them bathe in. A defect mercifully avoided by this particular affair of the heart. A mere look at the title ("Les Combattants" - literally "The Fighters" -) is an obvious guarantee that you will be spared the stale old exasperating Cha Ba Da Ba Da tale. Actually, neither the characters nor the situation are conventional or predictable. Take our young Romeo for example: Arnaud is a young carpenter who does not show any real passion for his trade. Docile, mild-mannered and easy-going, he takes life as it comes; in other words he still has to find himself. For her part Madeleine, the girl he meets, has little in common with the frail, sensitive Juliet. Three adjectives best qualify her: brusque, burly and nihilistic. Completely out of this world, the horsey lady has an obsession: mastering survival skills in order to... get through the end of the world! As you can see, not the standard Rom-Com, all the more as the stereotypical gender roles are reversed: Miss Headstrong is the dominant one while Mr. Least Line of Resistance yields and follows... at least for a time.

For all the rhetoric, though, this is a love story. Even if it looks just the opposite. Even if it is set in a more and more unusual context as the minutes pass. And it is precisely the odd settings and the crazy story developments that prevent boredom. Unique in its kind "Les combattants' has romance bloom... within the framework of a training session for wannabee paratroopers and, a little later, in the middle of a survival experience in the grip of untamed nature!

Nothing wishy-washy to fear as you can see. On the contrary in the end you will have been told the touchingly serious story of two creatures who attract each other but have to struggle to find who they really are and to make out how they can relate to each other satisfyingly. Another quality of Thomas Cailley and Claude Le Pape's screenplay, lies in the fact the two characters, a bit caricatural at the beginning, evolve in the course of the action and gain in depth. The last added value is the film's interesting examination of what it is like to be young in today's France, a country once prosperous and proud of itself which now seems to have lost its bearings. Both Madeleine and Arnaud, each in their manner, are disoriented and do not know where they are going. A statement that, by extension, can be applied to a big share of French youth and brings the movie a rich sociological touch.

Always where you least expect him, Thomas Cailley succeeds in combining several genres (documentary, comedy, romance, psychological study, army movie, disaster movie) without ever sinking into confusion. So much so that "Les combattants" appears as a unique example of its kind. Well-served by its actors (delusively bland Kevin Azaïs and always under pressure Adèle Haenel), it will surprise and amuse you while giving you - Thank God in a casual way - food for thought.