Force majeure (1989) - film review

Philippe is a promising student about to sit his exams and who is looking forward to a successful research career.  Daniel is another young man who has a girl friend, a baby, and who enjoys his hedonistic freedom.  The two men have not met for 18 months, when they made a tour of South East Asia, with a young Dutchman, Hans.  One day, Philippe and Daniel are in turn visited by a lawyer working for Amnesty International, who tells them that Hans has been arrested for possessing an illegal quantity of drugs.  His death sentence will be commuted only if Philippe and Daniel surrender themselves to the authorities in that country and admit that some of the drugs in Hans’ possession belonged to them.  Aware that by doing so, they risk a minimum of a two year prison sentence, neither Philippe nor Daniel are keen to go.  But if they refuse, Hans will be executed within a week…

In this hard-hitting and poignant mix of social drama and thriller, director Pierre Jolivet demonstrates his uncanny flair for tackling difficult and unusual subjects.  It would have been easy for this film to have ended up being drenched in nauseating sentimentality (as happened to the mediocre American re-make Return to Paradise), but fortunately Jolivet manages to prevent that from happening.  As a result, the film is much more effective and watching it is genuinely a harrowing experience for the spectator.

The film centres around two young men, Philippe and Daniel, who are complete opposites and yet have to face the same moral dilemma: do they sacrifice their freedom to save the life of another man they hardly know?  That is really all there is to the plot, but Jolivet manages to draw so much out of the situation, by showing how the two young men cope with the dilemma they are posed, that the film has barely a single moment of boredom in it.

Jolivet’s restrained direction brings the absolute best out of his two lead actors, Patrick Bruel (now better known as a popular singer) and François Cluzet, who both give probably their finest screen performances.  Kristin Scott Thomas and Alan Bates are also impressive in their supporting roles.  By keeping the drama focussed on its central moral question and avoiding easy sentimentality, Jolivet gives us a thought-provoking and moving film.


© James Travers 2000

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