Customer Reviews

A Self Made Hero [VHS]

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

 

 

Thus claims Jean-Louis Trintignant in one of the brief modern-day 'interviews' in Jacques Audiard's wryly amusing and constantly engaging Un Heros Tres Discret/A Self-Made Hero. The main body of the film follows Matthieu Kassovitz's Albert Dehousse, Trintignant's younger self, an innocuous underachiever dreaming of heroic acts he never gets the chance to carry out who is devastated when he discovers his wife and new family have hidden their resistance work from him and denied him his chance to be a real hero. Betrayed, adrift and penniless in a newly-liberated Paris, he learns to take advantage of a moment in history when anything is suddenly possible and, thanks to fortuitous friendships with genuine hero Captain Dionnet (Albert Dupontel) and well-connected collaborator Monsieur Jo (Francois Berléand), reinvents himself as a self-effacing hero with just enough inside knowledge to get by. He gets himself photographed in the crowd at war crimes trials, gradually inveigling his way into newsreels with real veterans and even makes capital out of the fact that many of his comrades have no idea who he is by amiably telling them they clearly don't remember him and shouldn't embarrass themselves by pretending, shaming them into 'remembering' him and allowing him into their inner circle. An honest liar who knows how to listen and to sell the stories of others as his own, often to the very person he overheard it from, he rarely lies but rather omits, leaving his audience to fill in the gaps, just as he never asks for anything but simply takes what is offered because of who his audience has convinced themselves he is.

Not that he's the only one reinventing himself - the whole nation is as it tries to reclaim its dignity from the shame of Occupation and collaboration, with heroes and tycoons becoming villains overnight and new heroes coming out of nowhere to replace them. At such a time and in such a context, he's more a symptom of a country that wants to believe in itself again and so will consequently believe almost anything. To one degree or another, everyone in the film lies and reinvents themselves - even the aged resistants rewrite their friendship into distrust for the benefit of the modern-day cameras in light of subsequent events while others choose to believe the lie and even embellish it. In many ways the consummate actor demonstrates what an asset to the resistance movement he would have been as he effortlessly infiltrates the past to invent the person he wanted to be, and his inside track on the mechanics of deception actually makes him far more ideal for his job rooting out collaborators than those who really did fight.

Occasionally including modern-day interviews with fictional veterans and, at one point, a character talking to camera about his life of disappointment and eventual pointless death, despite the variety of stylistic devices it's a remarkably cohesive and controlled film, putting its various techniques at the service of the story rather than drawing attention to themselves. More than that, it's also very entertaining and often laugh-out-loud funny, never falling into caricature despite brief moments of surrealism, and a striking well-observed comedy on the foibles of human nature worthy of Billy Wilder that more than amply repays a second viewing.

Optimum's recent UK PAL DVD offers a good transfer, though irritatingly the subtitles are not widescreen friendly (not too much of a problem as the film is only 1.77:1 but still a lazy oversight) and includes some better than usual on-set interviews with the director, cast and the author of the novel Jean-Francois Deniau, who throws some light on the real life figures (and there were plenty of Albert Dehousses in post-war France it seems) that inspired the film.

This is a great film. The characters were very believable, and the setting and details of postwar Europe were well researched. Really enjoyable story of a dreamer, that keeps you grounded with more than a couple moments that remind you that war is never simple and always a tragedy.

Why can't American films look this good?! How do the European film makers make their characters so human? This movie takes a little time to take off but no real thumb twiddling here. The story of a young man who, after World War II discovers the benefits of lying his way to a high ranking position in the provisional French government. Not someone you'd care too much for. That's the only problem here. Well done.

Since his first Op. Jacques Audiard proved to be a director with outstanding abilites but above all a creator of notable originality ion his proposals.

This is a movie tinged of great quality in what concerns to its artistic and technical level, that presents two dramatic stories; the revenge of a man who seeks the murderer of his best friend and the livings of two delinquents who works for the mob and end being a key piece inside the film. Two parallel narrations, independient and that, however, intermingle with quiet slenderness, upon a zealously conceived script and really human.

French Albert has always had a meaningless life. Living beyond the shadow of his possessive mother in the countryside of France, he dreams of becoming someone big. And his dreams come true; he becomes a very important and famous hero of war without even being at any war. This is the story of the right man, in the right, and that with some help of chance and luck, happens to deceive many people and achieve a huge success, power, notoriety and money.

The film is told in flashback by Albert himself, who shows what led him to become what he did. Moreover, to make things more believable, from time to time there is an `spontaneous' and accurate report by people who lived with Albert commenting on his actions and events of his life. The film has a very peculiar kind of fun, that may not suit all tastes.

Mathieu Jassovitz is very funny and good as the soldier. Albert is funny and very very intelligent. The script is very well written and is shows how Albert has never meant to be bad, but he was led to do what he did.

All in all, it is a different movie that I recommend to all who want to have some fun combined with intelligence. It is not the kind of humor that makes you laugh out laud, but it makes you smile many times.

Intelligent, droll, well made study of one man remaking himself as a hero under the cover of war.

Poses interesting questions about identity and truth, and how we all invent ourselves.

Some terrific cinematography, and a solid lead performance by Mathieu Kassovitz.

However, something was missing for me emotionally. Sometimes the ideas seemed heavy handed,
and other times, motives and characters underdeveloped.

However, enough smart critics and viewers I admire saw this as a near masterpiece, that I'd be open to taking another look.

I love the movie. Too bad this DVD version is so bad. The disk contains nothing but the movie itself (not even subtitles), and even the movie itself is in a very poor condition. I find that peculiar as I think the movie deserves a lot more. You should be able to download subtitles from the web.

I love french films, but when I saw Un hero tres discret I was speechless :) in this movie Mathieu Kassovitz plays a salesman who wants to be a hero (with the less effort possible) so he leaves everything and goes to Paris.
There, he mets really interesting people and begins to create his own heroic story. The things he does (in a really charming way) makes you want him to success.

Of course there are holes in his history and some suspect of him, but he has to accept that he doesn't belong to that life 'cause he has to make really hard decisions. And he suffers for that.

I highly recommend this film, it's a great price and you won't regret it :)