VINCENT LINDON, STÉFAN CREPON, BENJAMIN VOISIN

DELPHINE COULIN, MURIEL COULIN: THE QUIET SON/JOUER AVEC LE FEU (2024)

A family ripped apart by fascism in its midst

The Quiet Son/jouer avec le feu is a powerful fllm about a disturbing subject done in a striking simple style; its look generated by dp Frédéric Noirhomme was perhaps the most distinctive visual style of the films in the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema this year, and the acting has a contained explosiveness that understandably won a prize at Venice. The Coulin sisters, Delphine and Muriel, focus on two closely bonded brothers -- they may know first hand about strong sibling unity.

The brothers are 22-year-old Félix, callled "Fus" (Benjamin Voisin) and the younger Louis (Stefan Crepon) who's the academic star and about to enter university. They, have grown up alone with their SNCF French railroad engineeer dad Pierre Hohenberg (Vincent Lindon), thrown together because their mother died a long time ago. They live by the railroad in Metz, Lorraine in northeastern France like a bear clan. The warm, rock-solid bond is shaken and then ripped away when Fus turns out to be involved in the violent street actions of members of the ultra right.

Based on a novel, this film is not about the intricacies of poliitics or the various shadings of fascism. Nor does it elucidate the kind of union- and worker-centric liberal humanistic thought Pierre as involved in in younger days but now has no time to actively support. The allegiances are visceral and the new direction of Fus is felt as a gut-wrenching betrayal. The iinsight of the Coulin sisters is to see audiences will feel the new mnace of fasism better depicted in the heart of a small family.

The pared-down monolithic focus of this novel adaptation from Laurent Petitmangin's Ce qu'il faut de nuit is a template for the striking visual and editing styles. We're not given time to think. It's enjoyable for while to be in such confident directorial hands.

Emotionally this film works very well and stylistically it impresses with frame after frame. France's shift to the right is a delicate, complicated thing and that, plus the relentlessness of the screenplay and the editing, can be hard to take even if one admires the film, and leads some viewers to object that this is oversimplification. Willing to accept the bold strokes for how they wedded compelling acting with striking bisual style, I nonetheless felt manipulated by the screenplay's neat relentlessness.

The great Vincent Lindon excels in playing strong, masculine men, and he delivers the simple sincerity and outrage of Pierre with the kind of solid masterful force he has brought to more delicate roles like Those Who Remain (2007) and Mademoiselle Chambon[/I] (2010). The quality of his performance won him the Volpi Awardfor best actor at the Venice festival. Benjamin Voisin was previously seen as a confident gay teen in Ozon's YA adaptation Summer of 85 and the buoyant but doomed commercial journalist of Xavier Giannoli's Balzac recreation. Lost Illusions. He has an explosive enthsias, suggesting passion in search of a direction, which it finds in the dangerous conneries of his new skinhead pals. Given his bright spirit, the cold sullenness that follows is all the more dramatic.

Unless we are fascists, we're likely to feel instant sympathy for Pierre, and any parent or potential parent must sense how devastating it is for a son to turn into someone you don't know. But the hard edge and suddenness of Pierre's rejection of Fus shows his own monolithic extremism, which the younger son, Louis, perhaps the brihtest of the three, cannot so easily join in with.

The film doesn't only simplify the issues down to a few hints, a terrible involvement, and a terrible double consequence. It becomes a harsh solo cello sonata of a film whose dark, intimate visual style, llighting, color, and framing are so dstinctive it's a bit distracting, but if a distinctive styoe is a great one we don't want to complain. We may end by feeling that we've been manipulated by the assured, monolithic story development, however. There is no breathing room, and there is no allowance of second chances or second guesses. The progress of the action is relentless. However, unless you've been forewarned, there are bound to be surprises, and the relation between Louis and Fus starts to modulate once the older boy helps the younger one find a place to live in Paris and move there so he can study at the Sorbonne. And then it becomes terribly difficult for all three. There is a grim finale.

A typical negative view is expressed by Jessica Kiang in her Variety review, wose heading is "Stolid Parenting Drama With a Social-Issues Slant." The film, Kiang writes, "...states and restates the problem of rising, increasingly aggressive alt-right sympathies among young, working class populations, without providing any novel or particularly useful insights into it." But be that as it may, the stating and restating delivers a visceral message we may need, and the images with their dark inner spaces, linger in the mind.

The Quiet Son/Jouer avec le feu, 11 mins., debuted Sept. 4, 2024 at Venice (Best Actor award for Lindon), also showing at Chicago, Montreal (Cinemania), and (Göteborg . I. was released theatrically in France Jan. 22, 2025, with resulting AlloCiné ratings of 3.6 press (76%) and 3.4 spectator (68%). It was screened for this review as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center Feb. 2025. Showing:
Saturday, March 8 at 9:00pm – Introduction by Vincent Lindon
Thursday, March 13 at 4:00pm

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.