He leaves.
He's seen too much.
Laurent is a runny man.
This non-
commissioned officer of the gendarmerie throws down the glove.
Daily life is not rosy.
Albatross
takes place in Étretat.
As elsewhere, life carries its share of banal misery.
We must bring the drunkards home (the director Xavier Beauvois himself embodies the staggering drunkard).
This is nothing.
There are suicides.
A body falls from the cliff.
On the pebbles, it produces a funny soft noise.
The Japanese couple who were being photographed at the water's edge ran away.
The missions consist of stopping a teenage boy on a scooter who rides without a helmet, and clearing the beach in torrential rain.
Fortunately, Laurent will finally marry Marie, with whom he has an 8-year-old daughter.
They are going to move.
He offers her a ring.
She is afraid to choose an overpriced dress.
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In the offices, colleagues discuss LBD (use them or not), plan to afford a family cruise on an ocean liner (they do not agree on this kind of hobby).
Dialogues broken into, a cup of coffee in hand.
In the evening, they go to dinner, a kebab in the next town.
Like everyday life.
Okay, this dreadlock breeder might turn into a problem.
He is crushed by the charges, harassed by the health services.
His grant does not arrive.
His cows are better housed than him.
Laurent comforts him, tries to cheer him up.
The peasant has a gun.
The drama will occur.
It won't be the one we feared.
Uniform for armor
Xavier Beauvois, author of one of the most beautiful French films (
Des hommes et des dieux
), erases the pensum des
Gardiennes
in two hours
. He finds his marks, shows a country at a standstill, lost in problems that seem insoluble, as if struck by astonishment. Jérémie Renier, in the process of becoming an outstanding player, the shoulder in this company. His uniform serves as his armor. He kept her warm. It's finish. His gaze closes. Her shoulders hunched over. The tenderness of his wife is no longer enough.
He is elsewhere.
Here is a devastated man, devastated from within.
He dreamed of going to Newfoundland, contemplating the model boat his mother had given him as a souvenir, a sort of talisman placed on the fireplace.
What's the point of revamping a new home?
The good guy no longer believes in anything.
He wanted to help, and here is the result.
He gives back his apron, jumps on his sailboat without warning anyone.
He runs away, in every sense of the word.
On the ground, everyone is worried.
On the sea, the hero confronts his demons, crosses a storm, puts back the pieces of the puzzle that his existence has become.
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Him, storm under the skull of Guillaume Canet
Beauvois, who undoubtedly could have avoided a hallucination sequence, has no equal when it comes to scrutinizing shattered souls.
He describes loneliness, remorse, incomprehension.
His
Albatross
has strength, a power that does not exclude moments of intimacy.
We see the swell of feelings, the absurdity in a blue pullover, tired bodies, an almost haggard France.
Beauvois is unique in the landscape.
His giant wings do not prevent him from filming.