Film Review
In the course of the five films that he has made over the past two
decades, actor-turned-director Xavier Beauvois has earned his spurs as
one of France's most committed auteur filmmakers, one who is not afraid
to tackle challenging subjects with commendable restraint and
maturity.
So far he has dealt with issues as varied and difficult
as police brutality, depression and alcoholism, developing a
distinctive brand of social realism that is shot through with a dark
poetry and well-developed sense of irony. His latest film sees a
continuation of this fascination with the gloomier side of human
experience, yet it is also a departure into a more intimate and
introspective style of cinema.
Des
hommes et des dieux is just as dramatically intense and
character-focused as Beauvois's earlier films but it is
somewhat more measured in its style and tone, the work of an altogether
more confident and thoughtful filmmaker.
The film is based on a true story that dominated the French newspaper
headlines in May 1996 - the abduction of seven French Cistercian monks
from their monastery at Tibhirine, Algeria, by a band of Islamic
extremists. To this day, the details surrounding the deaths of
the monks is shrouded in mystery. At the time, the killings were
attributed to the monks' kidnappers but a French general later admitted
that they may have been accidentally killed by the Algerian army, who
then staged an elaborate cover-up. Sensibly, Beauvois does not
allow himself to be sidetracked by this blame game, nor does he show us
the grim fate of the monks (after a period of confinement, they had
their throats cut and were decapitated, their heads left by the side of
a road). Instead, he concentrates on the events that led up to
the tragic outcome, focussing on the monks' spiritual journey as they
come to accept the fate that has been allotted them.
Des hommes et des dieux is an
intensely spiritual film that has much the same impact as the greater
works of Robert Bresson (
Journal d'un curé de campagne,
Un condamné à mort s'est
échappé). It depicts, with astonishing
lucidity, the conflict between faith and fear, showing how we may draw
strength from our beliefs and thereby rise above our mortal failings,
the most potent of which is, of course, fear of death. By making
the decision to stay at their monastery and not be driven away by the
threat of a terrorist outrage, the group of monks are not just
reaffirming their belief in the Almighty, they are making a collective
statement that the human will is infinitely more powerful than any
weapon a terrorist may employ. They place the needs of the
community they serve above their own personal safety, and whilst their
martyrdom has an inevitability about it, the final victory is theirs -
their faith enables them to triumph over their human frailty. Far
from being a pointless sacrifice, the slaying of the seven Tibhirine
monks hastened the end of the civil war in Algeria in the 1990s, by
weakening support for the GIA and other Islamist terrorist
groups. This is how terrorism is defeated - not by all-out war,
but by heroic acts of passive resistance.
The film is an exhortation of the necessity to avoid giving into fear -
a message that cannot be repeated enough in our present troubled
times. Just as topical is its depiction of two religions -
Christianity and Islam - living side by side in harmony and working
together for mutual advantage.
The monks are not locked away in their Ivory Tower, nor are they concerned with converting the native
population to their creed. Instead, they respect and serve their
Muslim neighbours, who show them kindness in return. What
Beauvois presents in his film is a tantalising glimpse of the future we
all long for, where people of different faiths can coexist peacefully,
learning from one another instead of constantly bickering over piffling
inconsequentialities. The determination of the monks to stand up
to the fanatical minority that threatens this multi-faith Utopia is
something that should inspire us all and harden our resolve not to give
into the sad, deluded fanatics who believe that by slaughtering the
innocent they will find paradise.
Des hommes et des dieux is not
an overtly political film (in contrast to much of Beauvois's previous
oeuvre) but it has a strong political resonance, implying that
compassion and tolerance, not misdirected bombs and self-righteous
posturing, are the means by which terrorism is to be
thwarted. The film's striking chiaroscuro cinematography
(reminiscent of Medieval paintings in a some scenes) provides a graphic
visual representation of this struggle between the forces of light and
darkness which the monks experience in their traumatic period of doubt,
and which is subtly but poignantly conveyed by the performances from an
ensemble of talented actors head by Lambert Wilson and (a remarkable)
Michael Lonsdale. This inner conflict is magnificently expressed
in the film's most memorable and viscerally moving sequence, where the
monks share a meal - their last supper - whilst listening to
Tchaikovsky's
Swan Lake.
Through a series of lingering close-ups of the monks' highly expressive
faces, we see fear and doubt being slowly vanquished, and in their
place a mood of perfect serenity.
Not only is it a beautiful piece of cinema in its own right,
Des hommes et des dieux contains a
valuable lesson for our us all, and the fact that it was both a major
critical and commercial success signifies as much. Having taken
the Jury Grand Prize at Cannes in 2010, it was nominated for eleven
Césars, winning in the categories of Best Film, Best
Cinematography and Best Supporting Actor (Lonsdale), although its
greatest achievement was its success at the box office. In France
alone it attracted an audience of three million, and enjoyed comparable
popularity abroad. As terrorist atrocities become more
commonplace (exacerbated by the ineptitude of our political masters)
there is much that we can learn from
Des
hommes et des dieux and the example of the seven monks who
refused to submit to the thuggery of hate-filled
fanatics.
© James Travers 2013
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Next Xavier Beauvois film:
La Rançon de la gloire (2015)