Almost Peaceful
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Denis PodalydĂ..s, Lubna Azabal, Simon Abkarian, Vincent Elbaz, Zabou BreitmanDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-03-29
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
Movie Reviews of Almost Peaceful
Movie Review: Another French Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is one of the greats among French film ,but so peaceful and so devoid of concentration wrecking 'think this way' intrusive music that one can miss the greatness in the peacefulness and submissive tragedy from people whose innermost selves were gouged and rendered down in the human abbattoir in the vile camps which Britain and America knew far more about at the time than the German people. The symbolism of the soap is a duality of cleanliness and where many of these abused jews may have ended up..as soap.
"Almost peaceful" is reasonably well covered here by less scathing critics than I but none has reached deeply into what is a superb film. . The button sequence, which perplexed one critic, was a wonderful mental picture of turning disadvantage to advantage. Within the story were many stories and many lessons.
That I think it is Leon who comes in chirping as many birds at the end of the story is so simplistic it is easy to lose the impact...watch that one again...It is a magic piece which seems to derive from the forest scene's anti-climax..as does the whole event based on camp life unobtrusively, unheralded, translated into 'now'.
"I cannot change you" 'god' tells the boy who wheezes as he breathes through the four small holes owing to the button inserted in his throat to allow him to breath at all. "no one can change you"..but on his long trip into the presence of god, against all barriers and odds, the boy has learned to whistle exactly as the birds he must follow to reach god at all. Within even that instruction is a message set, a philosophy.
The old man who found the boy sleeping in the tree roots in the resistant forest taught the boy at the outset what he must do, to use his defect to find the happiness he seeks, to find god, the only one who can change him, he now finds IS god. `He' is always there when needed, in our forest of trials and frustrations, but disguised.
This is a concept of the 'holocaust' literally the sacrifice as the jews see it, I think, as a non-jew and the whistling and warbling of Leon, and the sense of it is not immediately profound, at the end of the story, when we return to the workshop, is so deeply compelling I must watch this again soon. To find beauty in oppression and failure and to come out of it singing like a bird tells us much about the survivors, and of a better life than the one we generally choose.
I want to praise it also by condemning a whole genre of film production which is a hundred times more indoctinating of the sort of culture which is again leading us to brutal genoicide. In the current Exodus from USA into the Americas, Ireland, New Zealand, France, middle Europe and the Carribean I hope the impact of their imported subculture doesn't drag down the culture of those places as it raids their security and social framework.
If this film has a fault it is that as usual the equally large group of suffering humanity, millions of catholics and other christians, Romany's, homosexuals..including homosexuals "found" in the Gestapo and other 3rd Reich services.. mentally ill people and other such "criminals" are not represented...but then it's a story about Jews and is wonderfully produced.
In a way to me it represents camp life transposed into peacetime..maybe others didn't notice that. My criticism of its opposition..the "anti-culture" of death violence and brutality of the USA is arising because I feel almost an anger that the world is saturated with such film trash that only Australian SBS, a unique channel, and its showing of alternative films saves the soul of what is called " TV cinema" on free-to-air" TV..
The film, "Almost Peaceful" (Un monde presque paisible," or "A World Almost Peaceful."based on a novel called "Quoi de neuf sur la guerre?) " is so compelling for me it directed my mind toward condemnation of an absurd and violent 'competing' film also on TV last night with Nicholas Cage and John Travolta as stars, a film with much to condemn it and so little to praise in it including its use of children.
Watching both, I found its serenity and personality a truly blessed relief from the TV saturation of American trash, elevation of drugs and voyeuristic sex into cult status, violence, noise, military superiority fantasy, paranoic obsession with 'terorism' and its other efforts to reshape the world into a lower class uncivilised planet ruled by violence death and drugs lapped up in 'cultural cringe' places like Australia.
"Almost Peaceful", an unpresuming film, quietly beautiful and profound just blew away that typical example of American Z grade movies but if I said the audience would have been a hundredth of the movie as above I'd be close, so indoctrinated is this country.
'Almost Peaceful' is a film which elevates every part of the decency and goodness we can so easily lose in this era. It is a masterpiece and shows how good a world we could have without denying human-ness.It tells us also of resolving human situations without recourse to violence.It tells us of deep love being experience without sexual profanity.
Europe is a land mass which produces the best character study films of the last 50 years,with two American exceptions. France excells at it but Spain, Sweden, Italy and other European countries, not necessarily "states of the EU" produces an abundance of truly mature films which if not masterpieces are films of great depth without recourse to violence..
The EU countries however do the best work of all, worldwide. Masterpieces need no music not appalling noise nor short term concentration span techniques to gain and hold attention from intelligent people of all 'levels' and ages.
American films differ dramatically, they use tail chasing techniques of violence at all sensaual levels because they are worse than valueless, are damaging and destructive and appeal to the market which is mentally corrupted feeding more and more escalating corruption as might a drug addict be manipulated by a dealer. "Pornographic culture" the Mohammedans perhaps rather hypocritically call the American culture ....however, as a man who has experienced much, whilst despising much of their own so called culture I agree with that criticism.
I make that criticism because to find such quality as in this film among the wonders produced by France at such a late date ..2002..is quite a reminder of just how advanced so war ravaged Europe is,has become, has returned to its prewar brilliance culturally and in 'sympa' by comparison with a country which had every opportunity to be great but decided to be the lowest common denominator.
India also is on the rise with quality character films, I say that in fairness and Australia has produced some occasional classics of quality such as "Picnic at Hanging rock" and "Breaker Morant", the UK seems to be on the decline though its films cut up into series are still, generally exceptional works.
One could do worse than to never watch other than these quality European films and leave the garbage on the 'decharge'. Any child can only benefit from watching films such as "Le Chateau de ma Mere" and "La Glorie de mon Pere" and never watch anything but such European, French in this case, masterpieces again....and my early comments above are pertinent to that.
Anthony Clancy
goldmort@onthenet.com.au
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