Losing a son… Even if he is still alive.
When the roads diverge, let the silences settle. Yet the love is still there. The father takes care of his sons, the sons take care of the father. Touching scene of Félix going to “tuck in” his father. We think we have instilled the right values, and then something goes wrong. This film touches me all the more because it talks about my home, Lorraine, a land that is primarily cultural rather than geographical, unfortunately crossed by identity fault lines, the latter fueled by a disastrous economic situation. The wastelands of the steel industry shelter those left behind, those in need of identity, who are reassured by violence and virilized bodies. Is the father of the assassin, as Pierre describes himself, guilty? For letting the situation fester when his only desire was to heal Félix’s wounds? To think that being present even without saying anything could be enough to resolve everything. That’s without taking into account the arrogance of his elder brother’s twenty years. When there is nothing left to rely on, when we no longer trust the system, only the ego carries us; until tragedy strikes. It could only end badly, Pierre said at the bar. And already his reflection fades when the door closes on 20 years of seclusion.
However, reducing the subject to social determinism would be too easy. In counterpoint there is the brother, Louis, who brilliantly succeeds in his literary studies. Why one and not the other? This is perhaps the film’s flaw, wasting a little too much time filming family moments and not looking a little deeper into the possible roots of evil. I experienced all this resentment in my time, it would have been easy to fall into it, into this identity which is nothing but frustration. If trauma can persist beyond generations as epigenetics tends to prove, there is no doubt that with three wars on its lands, plus the “despite us”, and the steel battles, Lorraine is a perfect candidate for family dramas. I felt this as a teenager, this hatred and this anger that we don’t know where it comes from. Fortunately, I met the right people and above all love. But Félix comes up against his loved ones, no female presence is at his side (the great void of the film), only the stadium and his tribal impulse seem to give him the desire to live.
-Pierre works on the tracks, traveling with a hazard light in his hand, with darkness enveloping him more and more as the drama plays out. The safety of others is his main mission, but worry constantly accompanies him; he feels from the start that Félix’s associations are possible sources of problems. He feels betrayed, and yet love must remain unconditional. But what else can you suggest? As a father, this film questions me. What if in a few years I experience a situation like this? Although I think there is little likelihood of this happening, I am not in control of everything my son may think, I must accept his future choices, even if they differ from mine. And if he were to hit a wall, what else could he do other than try to cushion the impact?
Playing with Fire is therefore a good film, it poses existential questions to the viewer. Here the father/son relationship is not Manichean, which gives it much more credibility. Carried by a solid casting, first by Vincent Lindon, perfect as usual, but also by two new faces of French cinema, Stefan Crépon, and especially Benjamin Voisin who bursts the screen with his charisma. I didn’t know the Boulin sisters, directors, but they are worth following.
