Film of the week: Brothers

Brothers therefore begins in 1948. Patrice (seven years old) and Michel (five years old) are waiting in boarding school. One day, they discover a hanged man. A clumsiness leads them to believe that they will be wanted by the police and they flee.

We are not in The wild child (1970) by Truffaut (although…). The duo survives (in a more or less civilized way) thanks to their intelligence and their resourcefulness in Charente. Survivalists before their time!

Decades later, the eldest Patrice (Kassovitz) leaves everything behind for Abitibi! Michel (Attal) leaves his wife and children to find him before he commits the irreparable… The two “sacred sparrows” find themselves alone again “facing themselves” and their traumas linked to childhood — the counterpart of their absolute freedom.

Olivier Casas, for his second feature film, chose parallel editing, so that each part responds to each other. An adequate structure, even if these back and forth trips have the disadvantage of tearing the viewer away from each of the universes when he or she dives deeper.

Two films in one, then. This is his main quality and his greatest fault. Because the tragic fate of two children makes it possible to justify the flight forward and Patrice’s existential crisis, 40 years later. Conversely, this weaker part overshadows the remarkable score of the two brothers while they are in their “cabin in Canada”…

Patrice (Mathieu Kassovitz) leaves everything behind for Abitibi! Michel (Yvan Attal) leaves his wife and children to find him before he commits the irreparable… (AZ Films)

Kassovitz (Hate, Munich) and Attal (A World Without Pity, Munich), before becoming directors and many other things, are among the best actors of their generation. Even with a minor text, they embody with great credibility and humanity these brothers in symbiosis, troubled by a common suffering transformed into a secret.

This takes root, as one might suspect, in their childhood. Certainly, there is this unworthy and cruel mother who abandons them, without remorse or regret (in France, there are hundreds of thousands in this situation after the Second World War, Brothers is dedicated to them). But not only…

The scenario maintains the mystery and, basically, the viewer does not need to know to understand the indestructible bond that unites them and their quest in the heart of the forest in Abitibi (fortunately, the dialogues with the Quebecers are not understated). securities!).

Casas’ staging doesn’t break anything, but at least it doesn’t ruin everything. Especially with children where the film overuses a sentimental soundtrack, which becomes downright annoying at times, and superfluous slow motion… Sobriety with the two brothers is more suitable.

Because, in addition to the joy of seeing Kassovitz and Attal reunited, Brothers offers interesting reflections on siblings, obviously, and what freedom is — an overused concept, if ever there was one.

No one is ever totally free, there is a price to pay, as the feature film demonstrates.

Except that, as Michel says off-camera, “you can’t keep someone who wants to leave forever”…

Brothers is presented in the cinema.

“Brothers,” trailer (K-Films America)