AguasVivas

In All Quiet on the Westen Front, there is only one shot - a long sequence with an imperceptible travelling forward - where the face of the actor Felix Kammerer (arguably the main character of the movie) appears in full screen, in its absolute and preserved peacefulness. The viewers understand he has just been passing, in the franco-german trenches, ironically by the exact time of enactment of the Armistice. Edward Berger seems to tell us: Death is beautiful. Yes it can be so after more than two hours of tragic absurd and dreadful description of events seen from the exclusive point of view of the (German) losers of the First World War, where no death is spared to the viewers. And where so many young men fell to their death or became orendously mutilated in the name and for the honour of their country and its political and military leaders. Such a unique waste may be alluded to by Edouard Berger in the first scene of the movie, filmed in a low angle, of a mother fox and her babies, warmly pressed against each other below earth in their burrow. Only human animals can find in themselves the will, strength and illusion of fighting till death for an abstract political concept such as that of territorial homeland. We are thus reminded of those so-called "primitive" societies that were shedding tears upon the birth of any new born child, in anticipation of the difficulties and challenges to come that she or he would have to face later on in life. And, as can be expected from said people, the members of these tribes were celebrating joyfully the passing of any of them, as a testimony of the end of earthly hardships for the deceased. And in between birth and death, according to what may be one of the meaning of this movie, there is only cynism. No place for any hope of redemption for any of its characters, all passively blown away by the craziness of war. At the end ,what remains is the impression of a too long and familiar scenario of the same senselessness . The quality of the photography by James Friend is to be highlighted.

Jean Dujardin's magnetism, and the "ordinary" charm of the protagonist he plays, takes us by the hand to make us enter the inner "reality" of the main character of Deerskin. His delirium imposes itself on the spectator with simplicity, and an efficiency that Quentin Dupieux masters well. Indeed, he builds a narrative verisimilitude that relies, on the one hand, on the use made by the main protagonist, of a videocam and of the filmed reality that he stages - a kind of mise en abîme of the film itself - in the pursuit of the satisfaction of a tyrannical "superego" (the very "deerskin" (suede) jacket that gives the film its title); and on the other hand, the director makes us perceive the "vision" of the main protagonist, and the resulting actions, as all the more real as they seem validated by the young waitress (played by Adèle Haenel) of the hotel. The latter, seeking to satisfy her dream of becoming a film "editor", and apparently taking a liking to the main protagonist's project, starts watching the images shot and recorded by the videocam, in order to edit them. The film borders on the absurd, while making us believe in this story, thanks to the patient, but effective, weaving done by the director, in the construction of the characters. As important, the choice of the shots and an effective direction of the photography, contribute to this "waking dream" with (dark) humorous touches.