Customer Reviews

Life and Nothing But

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Major Delaplane has been comisioned by the French government to find a body to be buried under L'Arc de Triounph. It must be the body of a soldier not claimed by his family. Meanwhile Irene de Courtil, a lady form a wealthy family is looking for her husband's remains.

They and several others arrived to a place where a military French train destroyed by the German army is buried inside a tunnel. People go there trying to find their husbands, sons and brothers and also trying to end with a war who has been terrible.

These two characters are distant, they had problems to develope any intimate relation. Delaplane is a soldier, he thinks like one and acts like one. But he is also a man who has seen so much death and destruction that he has reached a point where nothing cares to him. Irene is a woman who has lived a predictable life, she is a lady , in all the extension of the word. Who now feels out of place among people who has felt the war in its cruelest way. They start their relation fighting each other. But also fighting their concern to care about someone. Because they are afraid of having an intimate relation with anyone.

This film talks not only about the hypocrisy of war and the pain it creates, but also about love. The fear we feel when we love, if we dare to do it again after the pain love has done to us.

The performances of Sabine Azema and Philippe Noiret are wonderful. They can show us their fragility with such economy of gestures and words that you cannot avoid to feel moved by them.

A wonderful film that will remain in your memory for a long time

There are at least five stories in Life and Nothing But, and most of them could make a movie in themselves. There is the story of Major Delaplane (Philippe Noiret) who in 1920 has the task of trying to identify the 350,000 French soldiers who remain on the missing roles. There is the story of the hypocrisy behind the choosing of an unknown soldier who eventually will be buried with great pomp and honors beneath the Arc de Triomphe. There is the story of Irene de Courtil (Sabine Azema), married to a missing soldier who comes from a rich and privileged family. There is the story of Alice (Pascale Vignal) whose fiancee and lover was last seen in a battle where hundreds of soldiers were wounded or killed. And we have the story of the thousands of wives, parents, brothers and sisters of those 350,000 missing men who, nearly two years after the end of WWI, still have no idea of what happened to their men...are they alive, are they dead, are they horribly wounded, are they forgotten in some hospital or mental ward?

Delaplane is an army officer who is consumed by his job of identifying the missing, of finding corpses and tracing who they were. His superiors think he is reckless and unreliable. The generals, the politicians and the industrialists want nothing more than to let the missing stay missing. That way bad decisions and pointless battles may escape notice, and protected factories can go back to business. Delaplane is even more cynical as he sees the rush to find the remains of an unidentified soldier to be honored in Paris. He has to deal with the aristocratic Madame de Courtil and with the schoolteacher, Alice. He is brusque and cynical, yet he is dedicated to finding and identifying every one of those 350,000 missing men that he possibly can.

One long, outstanding sequence takes place in a huge, unstable railway tunnel. Toward the end of the war a train carrying munitions, gas shells, supplies and a car full of wounded soldiers entered the tunnel. The Germans in retreat had mined the place and it blew. Now, two years later and deep in the tunnel, Delaplane is trying to dig through the rubble, the unexploded gas shells and the torn tracks and find the car of bodies. In the field nearby relatives are waiting. Soldiers are sifting through dirt and rubble to find traces of bodies and belongings. Tables have been set up holding every manner of object which have been recovered so far, some matched with the bodies they were found on. People pass by the tables trying to find something that would tell them the fate of a loved one. They don't expect life; they just want closure.

Tavernier holds these stories together thanks to the power of Philippe Noiret as Major Delaplane, to the power of outrage at what Delaplane is up against, and to a script which manages to combine sardonic humor with a look at what the bureaucracies of war do to the men who fight the wars. This is not a grim movie, but a poignant and sad one. "One patriotic song and off they go to war," says Irene de Courtil to Delaplane. They had been seated at a small restaurant where a black jazz band had been playing. Then a French woman came on stage and sang a song of how we can fight and then be comrades. The young soldiers all stood and joined in the song. So did Delaplane. "It's a club," she says fiercely to Delaplane. "It will be a club for years to come, this club of those who won the war. And the losing side will have its club, too. You know why I think of clubs? Because women aren't admitted! Nothing scares you men more than women, their wombs, their courage, their watching eyes..."

And yet, as a friend and sculptor points out to Delaplane, the remains of the war now mean great business. "It's the Golden Age, my friend," he says. "Nothing like it since the Greeks, since the cathedrals. Even mediocre artists have their hands full. A monument per village. Three hundred sculptors for 35,000 towns. Everybody wants his doughboy, his widow, his pyramid, his marble, bas-reliefs, inscriptions. It's a factory. Better than the Renaissance. It's the resurrection." "Thanks to our dead," says Delaplane.

Eventually the stories come together. The unknown soldier is selected with pomp and cynicism. Says Delaplane, "Officials are reassured by the story of the unknown soldier. They had a million and a half men killed, and now we'll only think about this one." Delaplane discovers the fate and identity of Irene's husband and Alice's lover. There are some twists and turnings. While each major character either chooses or is forced to choose life, the future for Delaplane and Irene is indefinite. On balance, while I liked this movie a lot, there still are probably too many things going on for Tavernier to handle with complete success. Still, it's always a satisfying experience to see Philippe Noiret, with those shrewd eyes and bloodhound eye lids, take on a role of real substance.

The DVD transfer looks very good. There is one significant extra, a fine filmed interview with Tavernier and Noiret talking about the movie and how it was developed. For those interested in Tavernier, you might want to watch one of the blackest of black comedies, Coup de Torchon, also with Noiret. For good jazz and a fine story, 'Round Midnight is worth seeing. And for rip-roaring sword-fights, try D'Artagnan's Daughter.

"Life and Nothing But" is a French film with subtitles. It is highly recommended. One of the tragic aftermath's of the First World War was the unusually high numbers of 'unknown' and 'missing' soldiers. Part of this lie in the fact that many soldiers who fought on the western front in the war were literally 'atomized' by the intense artillary shells pounding at their positions day and night. In the film, Major Delaphane (Phillipe Noiret) has the unfortunate task of trying to put names to the dead.

But there are also many whose faces have been disfigured, and he has devised a system whereby he has been able to identify over 51,000 of the dead. These 51,000 account for over 350,000 still unknown. In the film the viewer can witness the agony of the loved one's who arrive at the battlefield's looking for anything to recognize the deceased. Even if the identity is in doubt, these families want closure in order to put flowers and pray over their loved one's. Truly tragic.

Major Delaphane is given the order to locate a set of soldier's who are not recognizable; and he must choose one that in French. This one soldier, whose remains are unknown is to be place under the Arc de Triomphe. This is to recognize ALL of those who will never be recognized. The tragedy is that this is true [not in the film] but in real life. If anyone has ever walked the WWI battlefields of France, you will notice in the cemeteries, both French and British, that many of the grave markers are marked 'Unknown' and this is the tragedy of this war. I highly recommend the film, it is insightful, and touching.

As the title suggests, nothing disrupts life and living persons and definitely not war. Along with humane messages, an impressively strong portray of loving sentiments. Noiret, excellent acting of the lead part. Every now and then, I watched it again and again. Recommended

A group of people at the end of the WW1 intends desperately to seek the bodies of his friends and familiars. Since this tragic premise Tavernier depicted a huge existential canvas as well as an unforgettable and painful about the human condition.

In the recent past, two other original films come to my mind respect the fatality and the spiritual wounds of the war. Forbidden games of Rene Clement and the Burmese harp. In this sense this movie must be regarded a true classic.

Philipe Noiret won the prize as best actor according the European film academy for this acting.

Extraordinary masterwork !

I was pleased to have watched this film in the past month. There is something that is hauntingly appealing to me. We Americans have little understanding of the history of France, and I, who majored in history in college, had little studied French history. This film gives us a history lesson as well as a bit of an understanding of the French psyche from a historical point of view.

This is not a story about World War I [War of 1914 - 1918] but rather a story about the effects of the war that continued for years after the end of the war, as well as its effects on individuals and their families. It seems that there are three love stories going on in the film, a woman who is searching for her husband who disappeared during the last months of the war, a young woman who is searching for her fiancé who also disappeared during the same time, and a French major and a widow who had a chance meeting that offered the hopes of a permanent relationship.

Major (Commandant) Dellaplane [played by the late Philippe Noiret] is a French Army medical officer who has been charged with both identifying the remains of dead French soldiers and also with selecting one French "unknown" to be among those to be considered to be the "unknown" who would ultimately be buried at the Arch of Triumph. His main concern is giving proper identities to those soldiers found on the fields of battle so that they can be returned to their homes and families for proper burial. This becomes an obsession for him, and his concern for numbers is an indication of this obsession. His superiors insist that he find an unknown FRENCH soldier, not an American, German, or Senegalese soldier. His identifying remains takes up most of his time, thus causing his superior officers to accuse him of being "obsessional," "insubordinate," and a "Dreyfusard."

He comes into contact with an aristocratic haut-bourgeois woman, Irène de Courtil [played by Sabine Azéma] searching for her lost husband. She is as obsessed with finding him as Commandant Dellaplane with identifying the unknowns who are found on the battlefields. At first Madame de Courtil has harsh words for Commandant Dellaplane, but when she sees the enormity of his undertaking, her attitude toward him softens. The regard that these two have for each other is noted by other characters in the film, particularly by the sculptor, Mercadot, who is on the scene doing studies for war memorials.

Another major character is Alice [played by Pascale Vignal], a school teacher searching for her fiancée.

Much of the action of the film takes place at the tunnel at Grézacourt where a French train carrying both wounded and munitions was blown up by mines left in the tunnel during the last days of the war. There were on the train well preserved remains of the soldiers who had died two years earlier. Widows and other family members came to the site of the tunnel to attempt to identify the remains based on personal effects found on them. It is at this location that the lives of Commandant Dellaplane, Irène de Courtil, and Alice come together.

Several reviewers have mentioned that they were unsatisfied with the ending of the film. We Americans like happy endings, and this film leaves us with more of a "European" kind of ending where one is not really sure whether there was a happy ending.

We see the heroic efforts of Commandant Dellaplane in several occasions where there were explosions of munitions on the train in the tunnel, showing great concern both for his men and for the families of those who had lost close family members during the war.

At a time when we are thinking ahead to Veterans Day [formerly known as Armistice Day], we think of the end of World War I -- November 11, 1918. We remember our own war dead, as well as those of the allies who fought in the war of 1914 to 1918, and the wars that came both before and after as a testament to their heroic efforts both on the battlefield as well as the sacrifices made by civilians at home.

The performances of Philippe Noiret and Sabine Azéma were compelling. The film was of such excellent quality that I ordered a copy for myself and a copy to give as a gift. This is worth more than just one viewing.

I was pleased that there was an interview with both Philippe Noiret and director Bertrand Travernier with the DVD. It added much to my understanding of the film both from a personal and academic point of view.

Won BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language, 9 Caesar Award nominations (French Oscars) and two wins

Fresh off the ambiguously masterful experience of Bertrand Tavernier's masterpiece Coup de Torchon, I embarked on his lesser yet still engaging La vie et rien d'autre (1989). It's a refreshing take on the repetitive/virtually mono-thematic genre of war movies since most rarely cover the post-war period -- in this case, the years following WWI. Considering the extraordinary French casualties suffered in WWI, the film is particularly powerful and devastating. As in Coup de Torchon, Philippe Noiret is at the top of his game as the male lead (Delaplane). His supporting cast is on the whole quite solid - especially the actress Sabine Azéma who plays the icy, wealthy, Parisian Madame Irène de Courti searching for the body of her husband. The actress Pascale Vignal is quite good as Alice who is searching for the body of her fiance.

Brief Plot Summary (limited spoilers)

La Vie et rien d'autre takes place in France after WWI. Delaplane is responsible for identifying the 350,000 or so soldiers missing in action. The opening scene is one of the most powerful in the film. The wealthy Parisian, Irène arrives at a hospital where Delaplane is photographing corpses and various other shell-shocked soldiers who have lost their minds. The Delaplane we first see is intensely driven and passionate about what he considers his extraordinarily important duty -- to precisely identify every man killed or missing in action and alert their families. Irène on the other hand, does not see his passion and instead is frustrated with the layers of bureaucracy which she perceives is preventing her from finding her husband.

Here the second strand of the narrative is introduced. Alice, who took over from the local school teacher when he went off to war, is out of a job after the teacher returns. So, she decides to find her fiance who is also missing in action. Irène and Alice meet in a mostly destroyed town and become friends despite their drastically different social backgrounds.

The third narrative thread introduced is by far the most satirical. The French government is attempting to find an actual "unknown soldier" (conflicting with Delaplane's stated purpose in life to identify everyone) to bury in pomp and ceremony under the Arc de Troimphe in Paris. This is quite difficult because of the problems of identifying who is an American, a German, or a Frenchman. Tavernier addresses this section with satirical intention -- criticizing the obsession over an unidentified soldier as opposed to the desire to identify the soldiers -- likewise, the monument concentrates all grief on an almost "symbolic" death instead of the million plus who actually died and whose families suffered.

All of these narrative strands interweave at a particularly horrific location in the country side -- a train carrying new soldiers, hospital cars, ammunition, American soldiers, etc which exploded when entering a German rigged train tunnel. Delaplane's soldiers attempt to remove all the dead bodies and invite families to identify them. This is the location for the most powerful scene in the film. The families file past long tables covered with trinkets and belongings of all the dead bodies recovered from the tunnel meticulously labeled to the corresponding body for family members to recognize and identify -- tin cups with initials scratched on the bottom, watches, necklaces from lovers and wives, keys, notebooks, booklets, etc.
Delaplane's stern exterior soon shows cracks as he watches both Irène and Alice soldier through fruitless searches. He soon falls for Irène... It is at this point that I'll stop my summary.

My Final Thoughts

This isn't an action film. This is a reflective film. The sets are quite interesting and provide a believable backdrop -- the hellish train tunnel filled with the dead and the wrecked train, the hotel placed among the generators of a gigantic factory, the bombed out towns, the camp clustered around the train tunnel, the endless mazy corridors of the hospital filled with shell shocked and wounded. The love story might feel somewhat forced and the ending a tad frustrating. My biggest qualm was actually the film score which I felt tried too hard to drum up tension and expectation when there was none. That said, this is a lost great of the war movie genre -- despite its setting COMPLETELY in the POST-WAR period. Definitely check out this Noiret and Tavernier collaboration. Coup de Torchon is a superior film but this is still worth your time.

Wonderful movie, a real page of history in the IWW postwar France. Not to miss at all.