Don't see this if there are no subtitles and your French is sketchy at best to non-existent otherwise you'll drive yourself crazy trying to figure out if it's a fantasy or what. It's 1917 and the war is in full spate. In the North East of the country Sylvie Testud gets a Dear Jean letter and instead of murmuring philosophically, c'est la vie, c'est l'amour she chops off her hair, finds a pair of pants and lights out for the front to ask the guy who done her wrong just what he thinks he's doing. Before long she runs across a raggle-taggle unit led by Pascal Greggory, tags along and winds up with a uniform - they just happened to have a spare in her size as you do - but no gun and becomes part of the group. They march, and march and march some more but strangely enough in the middle of a major war they never run into any actual fighting though they do hear gunfire on one occasion. Even more bizarrely they keep breaking into song, complete with an quintet/sextet of soldier/musicians at a time when one would have thought discretion would dictate silence. Eventually Testud's errant mate shows up, they put in some sack time - in pajamas yet, presumably from the same quartermaster's stores that laid the uniform on Testud - and the group moves on leaving them to it. It's actually a beautifully shot and engrossing film a sort of hybrid of Yentl, Victor Victoria and A Very Long Engagement. Sylvie Testud is clearly brave enough to play a role in which she is seen as androgynous whereas she is actually a very lovely and very feminine actress and she works well with Greggory although virtually all the actors turn in fine performances. Not really multiplex fodder but no worse for that so if there's an Art House near you lobby them to book this.
Review of La France
