A Norman gendarme killed a farmer by accident.
"Albatross" shows the despair of this good father faced with his guilt.
Jérémie Renier is dazzling in this film where the modesty of Xavier Beauvois works wonders.
Normandy, Xavier Beauvois knows it well.
He shows it in an unknown light in
Albatross
.
Jérémie Renier, policeman and father, is ready to marry his partner (magnificent Marie-Julie Maille also co-writer and editor of the film).
He sees his life turned upside down when he accidentally shoots an angry farmer down.
“I know the gendarmes and the Norman peasants, explained Xavier Beauvois to
20 Minutes
this summer at the Angoulême Festival.
Albatross
does not put them back to back.
The drama that the film tells is that of men shattered by a political situation of which they are the victims.
What the director of the film
Des dieux et des hommes
describes in hollow is the unease felt by beings crushed by an inhuman system.
Between grief and revolt
Xavier Beauvois was inspired by a newspaper article to write this poignant film which describes the daily life of a policeman between suicides, incest and ordinary misery before sinking into a tragedy for which he is not prepared. "He is fleeing a reality at sea that he cannot accept", underlines the director. The one that strikes a man of integrity unable to face his guilt. After
The Little Lieutenant
, Xavier Beauvois again evokes the police with this intense film which brings tears to my eyes between grief and revolt.
The suffering of the main character is communicated to the spectator who shares his dismay until his rebirth for a final scene of intense beauty carried by Marie-Julie Maille and Madeleine Beauvois, the director's companion and daughter.
“The story is both social and romantic.
The idea of integrating my own family came to me quite naturally and producer Sylvie Pialat trusted me on this subject, ”insists Xavier Beauvois.
Intimate and universal
Is it this intimacy, perceptible on the screen, which brings an extra soul to
Albatross
?
Is it the beauty of the landscapes of the Etretat region, deserted outside the bathing season, which surrounds the film in an almost surreal atmosphere?
Is it the naturalistic side of the whole that wins the day by making the characters take up the cause?
These are all the reasons that make
Albatross
a great film whose skin-deep humanity haunts deeply.
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