The girl and the earth. Almost simultaneously in European cinema there were two similar adaptations about the time of the Great War of 1914-1918, where the main theme through the entire narrative passes the theme “Girl and Earth”. In the UK, Terence Davis filmed the novel by Louis Grassic Gibbon “Song of the Sunset” (1932), in France, Xavier Beauvois filmed the novel by Ernest Perichon “Guardians” (1924).
The Great War of 1914-1918 is recognized by most historians and researchers as the key event of the change of epochs. Peasant patriarchal Europe is being replaced by an industrial society in which land, seasons, seasonal labor, and man do not have the most important cornerstone value as before. The Great War invaded the life of agricultural life by symbolically selecting men from agricultural fields to battlefields and battlefields.
The film takes place within Paridier Farm from 1914 to 1919. The owner of the Ortans farm (another talented acting work by Natalie Bay) remained on the farm with her daughter Solange (played by Natalie Bay's daughter Laura Smet), from where the war took the men: sons Ortans and husband Solange. Ortans hires a young girl Francine (persuasive acting work of aspiring actress Iris Bree), the main character of the story.
In the image of Francine, it is very easy to see the symbolic image of agricultural France. Francine is devout as a simple-minded Catholic peasant, hardworking, modest, caring and full of strength that is capable of love and fertility.
The authors of the film lovingly recreate on the screen the life of France of those years. The camera long and lovingly peers into the time-consuming activities of the characters of the film and paints beautiful landscapes of different seasons.
The war is off-screen. Her deadly breath hardly touches life in the deep rear. Almost. But when it does, the pain and loss is almost unbearable.
The ending of the film is open and optimistic. The war is over, life is ahead. Life has once again triumphed over the madness of mankind and gives man hope for the future. (Just how long?)
My opinion is good.
7 out of 10