“The Guardians” is a French drama film directed and written by Xavier Beauvois. This war movie was screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. The film adapted from a 1924 novel by Ernest Perochon explores the gradual creep of modernity into the most isolated corners of France.“Straightforward and simply told, with emotions running just below the surface and then boiling up at key moments, this femme-centric drama — about a group of women holding down the family farm while the men are away at the front — is perhaps a tad too long and restrained for mainstream consumption. But it proves that Beauvois still masters his uniquely classical brand of filmmaking, coaxing strong performances out of veteran Nathalie Baye and newbie Iris Bry, who makes an impressive screen debut,” writes the Hollywood Reporter.After his 2010 Cannes prize-winning “Of Gods of Men” wowed art-house audiences, Beauvois switched gears with the quasi-comedic “The Price of Fame.” In “The Guardians” he directs a rich ensemble drama which is about how a group of women in the French countryside keep a farm alive during World War I. He made his first movie, “Nord” (1991) when he was 23 starring himself — an Oedipal ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ set in his drab hometown of Calais. His next film, “Don’t Forget You’re Going to Die” (1995), starred Beauvois and was about an art student with HIV. His more sober film “Le Petit Lieutenant” (2005) was a policier set in Paris. “His films are a curious mix, all of them different and assured, all of them striving hard for a gritty, ground-level authenticity,” says Time Out magazine.“The women of the Paridier farm under the deft hand of Hortense, the family’s matriarch (Nathalie Baye) must grapple with the workload while the men, including two sons, are off at the front. Hortense reluctantly brings on an outsider, the hard-scrabble teenage orphan, Francine (Iris Bry), to help her daughter Solange (Laura Smet). New tools allow the women to triumph over the land, newfound independence is acquired, yet emotions are stirred especially when the men return from the front on short leaves,” writes the Arthouse website.The strong point of the film is that the director shows the challenges of farm work — the old fashioned French pastoral life shot on digital video in the glistening natural sunlight. “Beauvois is less interested in the moment-to-moment thrills of the story than in the rippling effects that the characters’ actions have in the long run,” Slant magazine writes.The film opens on August 17, 2018, at Arthouse Crouch End, London. 59A Tottenham Ln, London N8 9BT, U.K.For details, visit: http://www.arthousecrouchend.co.ukClick on the slideshow for a sneak peek at the film. www.blouinartinfo.comFounder: Louise Blouin
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