Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway / Les Gardiennes


The precise and detailed director Xavier Beauvois (Of Gods and Men) turns his camera to the history of World War I in “Les Gardiennes,” based on a 1924 novel by Ernest Perochon. The film, understated and sober, is minute in detail and possesses a painterly quality reminicent of the artist Millet.

Just as in “Of Gods and Men” we see life as it is lived, with no gloss or frills. We are taken to life on a farm in 1914 France. Crops are tilled. Cows are milked. Wheelbarrows are hauled.

A passive and gentle son Constant (Nicolas Giraud) is sent to the front. He doesn’t come back. Constant’s mother Hortense (Nathalie Bay ) is crushed, yet she maintains the homestead with an iron hand. Hortense hires the young Francine (Iris Bry) to help but she unwittingly causes drama by giving affection to Constant’s brother Georges (Cyril Descours) along with others.

Through intrigue and tragedy both Hortense and Francine struggle on. We see Hortense become almost Christlike as she does heavy manual labor, her back bending with fatigue, her hands spastic with wear and stress. Soil is embedded in her pores.
Francine is cast out in the manner of a character drawn by Thomas Hardy. With no money and few connections, she survives by her wits.

Though there is drama, this is no steamy pulp story, but simply life as it is lived. One can feel the soil, touch the rock, or get cut by stone in this film.

Above all, this is one of the most visually haunting movies in a long while. Dead bodies with gas masks are scattered about resembling extraterrestrials, abandoned and forgotten, stripped of life. When Constant leaves home and walks away, his figure gradually fades, slowly becoming one with the gray fog: a human whisper. The shot is comparable to Claude Monet.

Though set in war, it is not a war film. The energy and drama is not contained in any gore or battle scene. Rather this is a cinema of emotion, a meditative study of human behavior and fear. One doesn’t pine for thrills; the film is all the more masterful for its laser sharp focus in details. War is surely a Danse Macabre: tragic, forlorn and without mercy.

“Les Gardiennes” works slowly but by the first half you will be taken as much by its circular themes of responsibility, toil and patience as with its visual qualities that are striking and impactful, making a film that is nothing less than a painting in motion.

Write Ian at [email protected]
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