IN THE NAME OF THE LAND
****
Director: Édouard Bergeon
Screenwriters: Édouard Bergeon, Emmanuel Courcol and Bruno Ulmer
Principal cast:
Guillaume Canet
Veerle Baetens
Rufus
Anthony Bajon
Yona Kervern
Samir Guesmi
Country: France/Belgium
Classification: M
Runtime: 103 mins.
Australian release date: 26 November 2020.
It’s been a bumper year for French cinema releases in Australia. Leaving aside the feast that was the 2020 French Film Festival, so far we’ve had the pleasure of seeing Deerskin, La Belle Époque, Les Misérables, The Mystery Of Henri Pick, The Translators and We’ll End Up Together. Now there’s another excellent movie to add to the list, In The Name Of The Land. Starring that renaissance man of the French film industry, Guillaume Canet (he only acts in this title, but he also directs, writes and produces), it tells the largely autobiographical story of director Édouard Bergeon’s farming family and their struggles on the land during Bergeon’s childhood. He comes from a documentary-making background and it shows in the matter-of-fact approach he has taken to his tragic subject. A surprise hit at the French box office, it was deservedly nominated in the Best First Feature Film category at this years César Awards, the Gallic equivalent of the Oscars.
It is 1979 when we first meet Pierre Jarjeau (Canet), who has just returned to his father’s farm in north-western France after a stint working the land in Wyoming, USA. He’s keen to hook up with his old girlfriend Claire (Veerle Baetens) and before long they marry and prepare to take on the Jarjeau family property. Pierre’s old man, Jacques (Rufus), is irascible and a bit of a tyrant but he acknowledges that he is getting too old to keep working the farm, so he agrees to sell it to the couple, but he’s not doing them any favours. He declares that he can’t see why he should hand over the land to his son when he’s worked so hard to maintain it over the years; on the contrary, the terms of settlement are quite onerous and, in addition to a lump sum, Pierre will have to pay Jacques in instalments for a long time into the future. Flash forward 17 years to 1996 and Pierre is getting deeper and deeper into debt as he tries to diversify with ever larger projects. Claire takes a job in town and their teenage son Thomas (Anthony Bajon) helps out whenever he can but, somehow, Pierre never seems able to get ahead of the bank. This puts him and the family - they have a young daughter too - under tremendous pressure so when an accident on the farm occurs, their life starts to unravel.
In The Name Of The Land is a tremendously powerful film, tragic but very sensitively handled, presumably because Bergeon has, to a large degree, lived the story we see on screen. He’s on side with these farmers and the difficulties they face in a global market. Despite the family’s travails, he also wanted to demonstrate the strength of the bonds that keep the Jarjeaus together. He says that, “I wanted to show the love that binds the four members of this family. [The film] is first and foremost a family saga in which everyone, whether they belong to the rural world or not, can recognise themselves.” The performances are magnificent and Canet, in particular, is extraordinary. He is utterly believable as this hard-working, loving man who, try as he might, sees his world disintegrating around him. Credit, too, to the makeup department for the physical transformation of Canet as he ages over the years. Shot in Cinemascope, Eric Dumont’s camera fittingly embraces the stunning landscapes of the region known as the Alpes Mancelles. Filmed in two four-week tranches in both summer and winter, the land becomes an important character in itself, as it should in a movie like this. The music, composed by Thomas Dappelo, is subdued but important, never dictating our emotional response, just quietly and effectively supporting the action.
Based on his direction here, we can but hope that Bergeon continues to make dramatic films as well as documentaries in the future. In The Name Of The Land is a tour de force.
Screenwriters: Édouard Bergeon, Emmanuel Courcol and Bruno Ulmer
Principal cast:
Guillaume Canet
Veerle Baetens
Rufus
Anthony Bajon
Yona Kervern
Samir Guesmi
Country: France/Belgium
Classification: M
Runtime: 103 mins.
Australian release date: 26 November 2020.
It’s been a bumper year for French cinema releases in Australia. Leaving aside the feast that was the 2020 French Film Festival, so far we’ve had the pleasure of seeing Deerskin, La Belle Époque, Les Misérables, The Mystery Of Henri Pick, The Translators and We’ll End Up Together. Now there’s another excellent movie to add to the list, In The Name Of The Land. Starring that renaissance man of the French film industry, Guillaume Canet (he only acts in this title, but he also directs, writes and produces), it tells the largely autobiographical story of director Édouard Bergeon’s farming family and their struggles on the land during Bergeon’s childhood. He comes from a documentary-making background and it shows in the matter-of-fact approach he has taken to his tragic subject. A surprise hit at the French box office, it was deservedly nominated in the Best First Feature Film category at this years César Awards, the Gallic equivalent of the Oscars.
It is 1979 when we first meet Pierre Jarjeau (Canet), who has just returned to his father’s farm in north-western France after a stint working the land in Wyoming, USA. He’s keen to hook up with his old girlfriend Claire (Veerle Baetens) and before long they marry and prepare to take on the Jarjeau family property. Pierre’s old man, Jacques (Rufus), is irascible and a bit of a tyrant but he acknowledges that he is getting too old to keep working the farm, so he agrees to sell it to the couple, but he’s not doing them any favours. He declares that he can’t see why he should hand over the land to his son when he’s worked so hard to maintain it over the years; on the contrary, the terms of settlement are quite onerous and, in addition to a lump sum, Pierre will have to pay Jacques in instalments for a long time into the future. Flash forward 17 years to 1996 and Pierre is getting deeper and deeper into debt as he tries to diversify with ever larger projects. Claire takes a job in town and their teenage son Thomas (Anthony Bajon) helps out whenever he can but, somehow, Pierre never seems able to get ahead of the bank. This puts him and the family - they have a young daughter too - under tremendous pressure so when an accident on the farm occurs, their life starts to unravel.
In The Name Of The Land is a tremendously powerful film, tragic but very sensitively handled, presumably because Bergeon has, to a large degree, lived the story we see on screen. He’s on side with these farmers and the difficulties they face in a global market. Despite the family’s travails, he also wanted to demonstrate the strength of the bonds that keep the Jarjeaus together. He says that, “I wanted to show the love that binds the four members of this family. [The film] is first and foremost a family saga in which everyone, whether they belong to the rural world or not, can recognise themselves.” The performances are magnificent and Canet, in particular, is extraordinary. He is utterly believable as this hard-working, loving man who, try as he might, sees his world disintegrating around him. Credit, too, to the makeup department for the physical transformation of Canet as he ages over the years. Shot in Cinemascope, Eric Dumont’s camera fittingly embraces the stunning landscapes of the region known as the Alpes Mancelles. Filmed in two four-week tranches in both summer and winter, the land becomes an important character in itself, as it should in a movie like this. The music, composed by Thomas Dappelo, is subdued but important, never dictating our emotional response, just quietly and effectively supporting the action.
Based on his direction here, we can but hope that Bergeon continues to make dramatic films as well as documentaries in the future. In The Name Of The Land is a tour de force.