A rural news marked by the war
Issued in 2017, The guardians It is part of the tradition of the French historical frescoes -in -Law. Adapted by the novel of the same name by Ernest Pérochon, Goncourt Prize in 1920, the film follows the Paridier family, Limousin farmers, whose men left for the front. Staying alone, Hortense (Nathalie Baye) and her daughter Solange (Laura Smet) keep the farm with the help of Francine (Iris Bry), a public assistance girl.
Xavier Beauvois films the earth and work with almost documentary. The slow rhythm marries the seasons, the gestures of everyday and the silent sacrifices of a generation of women who have often remained in the shade of official history. The film also stands out for its narrow cast and its lack of melodramatic effects, focusing on a contemplative staging and a photograph inspired by impressionist paintings.
A fiction rooted in a forgotten reality
The guardians Do not tell a true story of terms of terms, but is based on a solid historical ground. Ernest Pérochon’s novel, he himself a former mobilized teacher, is inspired by what he observed on the return from the front: Exesangues campaigns and women marked by the war effort. The figure of Francine, although fictitious, embodies the hundreds of young women of public assistance sent to the farms to replace the mobilized agricultural workers.
The film precisely reflects the social upheavals induced by the war: relative emancipation of women, class tensions, but also brutal return to the patriarchal order from the armistice. Xavier Beauvois has done careful reconstruction work, transforming natural sets, based on archives and local testimonies to give its history a rare authenticity. In this sense, The guardians It touches reality, not with the accuracy of an object of news, but for the correctness of his gaze on a collective memory for a long time passed in silence.
Source: Cine Serie
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