Les gardiennes (2017)

Directed by: Xavier Beauvois | 134 minutes | drama | Actors: Nathalie Baye, Laura Smet, Iris Bry, Cyril Descours, Gilbert Bonneau, Olivier Rabourdin, Nicolas Giraud, Mathilde Viseux, Xavier Maly, Marie-Julie Maille, Madeleine Beauvois, Alain Artur, Adrien Denizou

‘Les gardiennes’ is about a peasant family in central France during the First World War. The women continue to farm, because the men naturally have to go to the front. In the sober, subdued narrative style of the rural drama, Xavier Beauvois’s film (‘Des hommes et des dieux’) peacefully ripples through the premise that women, as a result of circumstances, maintain daily business – and thus the economy. It is therefore no coincidence that this film will premiere on International Women’s Day (8 March).

In ‘Les gardiennes’, women like Hortense (Nathalie Baye) and Solange (Baye’s daughter Laura Smet) are clearly the leaders, while men like son and brother Constant (Nicolas Giraud) are good teachers who simply fulfill their patriotic duty and at last have something manly to do. do have. This schedule is somewhat irritating, because, regardless of harsh circumstances, not every woman in 1915 will have had a ‘strong’ morality, and not every war soldier will have been a mild-mannered type.

Perhaps Beauvois would like this relationship to unfold. This statically staged novel adaptation, which only strikes a chord when death is announced, suffers from maternalism; while we just want to see how people survive in harsh conditions. What is also striking about ‘Les gardiennes’ is that the formal peasant society of France a century ago is captured in contemporary human relationships – with psychologization at the dinner table.

Admittedly, it is a film makers’ own emotions to condense, but this is too easy a way. As a result, the film lingers in white-starched costume drama; time is captured in stylized vignettes – too many pretty pictures in our eyes for the sobering reality of La Grande Guerre. Everywhere you feel that ‘Les gardiennes’ has been recorded in the 21st century. The film frays too little; it’s botoxed historical drama. The decent renditions of Baye and the hair (with special mention to Iris Bry as the radiating maid) can do little to change that.