Le Dernier des fous (2007) - film review

Growing up on his parents’ farm in rural France, 10-year-old Martin becomes increasingly unsettled as he witnesses the slow disintegration of his family.  His mother, Nadège, has become so withdrawn that she can no longer leave her bedroom.  His older brother, Didier, whom he idolises, is a struggling writer who becomes moody and aggressive when his boyfriend leaves him to get married.  Jean, Martin’s father, is incapable of holding his family together and realises that he has no choice but to sell the farm.   Outwardly, Martin appears to be unscathed by what he sees.  He takes refuge in the company of those who give him comfort – his cat, Mistigri, and the family’s Moroccan maid, Malika.  But no one can know the torment and confusion which afflict Martin’s inner being, until one fatal day...

Le Dernier des fous, the second feature from French director Laurent Achard, offers a disturbing yet heart-wrenching account of how a child’s psychology and well-being can be warped and destroyed by the world he inhabits.  The film is based on the provocative novel The Last of the Crazy People by the Canadian writer Timothy Findley and garnered two prestigious awards in 2006: the Best Director award at the Locarno Film Festival and the Jean Vigo Prize, an accolade that is reserved for works of exceptional originality.

Plotwise, the film has some common ground with the classic slasher movies Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980), particularly as the central character, the boy Martin, betrays not one trace of emotion and has a sinister ghoul-like presence which makes the gruesome denouement entirely predictable.  Yet  this is most definitely not a slasher movie.  Rather, it is an intelligent piece of social drama which shows the extent to which a child’s actions, which may be totally incomprehensible to an adult, can be directly attributed to the environment in which he grows up.  

Although we see the world through the eyes of ten-year-old Martin, we never know quite what impact his experiences are having on him.  We see him neglected and brutalised, unable to comprehend his older brother’s mood swings, his mother’s mental decline and his father’s apparent indifference.  We anticipate how the drama will end and finally realise that the outcome is inevitable.  No child that is denied love will appreciate the value of life, and some are bound to stray down the dark path that leads to carnage.  Why then are we so inordinately shocked and surprised when such atrocities happen in real life?

As with his previous film, Plus qu’hier moins que demain (1998), Laurent Achard gives us a work that is darkly poetic, combining stark realism with some unsettling expressionistic flourishes.  Periodically, the placid calm of the film, accentuated by its static camerawork and a complete lack of music, is fractured by discordant sound and bursts of action which violently jolts the spectator back to reality.  We are reminded that underneath the surface calm a storm is brewing, a storm that will wreak devastation when it breaks.  Martin’s face may be as blank and expressionless as a death mask, but we know what lies beneath – a confused, fearful soul that has no comprehension of the significance of life.  Despite its narrative simplicity, slow pace and somewhat superficial characterisation, Le Dernier des fou manages to be an arresting and throught-provoking piece of drama, a reminder perhaps that evil is not born but nurtured.

© James Travers 2010

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