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Force majeure (in English,
Philippe is a promising student about to sit his exams and is looking forward to a successful research career. Daniel is another young man who has a girl friend, a baby, and who enjoys his hedonistic freedom. The two men have not met for 18 months, when they made a tour of South East Asia with a young Dutchman, Hans. One day, Philippe and Daniel are visited by a lawyer working for Amnesty International, who tells them that Hans has been arrested for possessing an illegal quantity of drugs. His death sentence will be commuted only if Philippe and Daniel surrender themselves to the authorities in that country and admit that some of the drugs in Hans' possession belonged to them. Aware that by doing so, they risk a minimum of a two year prison sentence, neither Philippe nor Daniel are keen to go. But if they refuse, Hans will be executed within a week.
The film centres around two young men, Philippe and Daniel, who are complete opposites and yet have to face the same moral dilemma: do they sacrifice their freedom to save the life of another man they hardly know? That is really all there is to the plot, but Jolivet manages to draw so much out of the situation, by showing how the two young men cope with the dilemma they are posed, that the film has barely a single moment of boredom in it. Jolivet's restrained direction brings the absolute best out of his two lead actors, Patrick Bruel (now better known as a popular singer) and François Cluzet, who both give probably their finest screen performances. Kristin Scott-Thomas and Alan Bates are also impressive in their supporting roles. By keeping the drama focussed on its central moral question and avoiding easy sentimentality, Jolivet gives us a thought-provoking and moving film. © James Travers 2000 Footnote: Alan taught himself French in the '60s, for "King of Hearts," using phonograph records; you can enjoy his serviceable French in this film. One key scene is done in English; Alan commented once that he thought Jolivet chose to use English because he was afraid that Alan couldn't deliver the emotional impact necessary to the scene in French. |
In
1988, French director Pierre Jolivet (who had cut his movie teeth
co-writing the early Luc Besson movies The Last Battle and Subway)
wrote and directed a film called Force Majeure (meaning out of
one's control, literally a higher power), about two young Frenchmen
who are informed by an Amnesty International lawyer (Alan Bates)
that they hold the life of a long-ago Dutch pal in their hands
(the movie also features the then-unknown Kristin Scott-Thomas).
Never distributed in America, Force Majeure played a handful
of international film festivals and then was withdrawn because
it had been optioned for remake; it appeared in 1998 as "Return
to Paradise," directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Vince
Vaughn, Anne Heche, Joaquin Phoenix, David Conrad, Vera Farmiga,
Nick Sandow, Jada Pinkett Smith.
In this hard-hitting
and poignant mix of social drama and thriller, director Pierre
Jolivet demonstrates his uncanny flair for tackling difficult
and unusual subjects. It would have been easy for this film to
have ended up being drenched in nauseating sentimentality (as
happened to the mediocre American re-make Return to Paradise),
but fortunately Jolivet manages to prevent that from happening.
As a result, the film is much more effective and watching it
is genuinely a harrowing experience for the spectator.