DANS LA BRUME/ HOLD YOUR BREATH

France, 2018, 89 minutes, Colour.
Romain Duris, Olga Kurylenko, Fantine Haruin, Michel Robin.
Directed by Daniel Roby.

The French title of this thriller-drama indicates the atmosphere of the plague that has threatened the world, echoes of John Carpenter and The Fog, of Stephen King and The Mist.

The action takes place in the city of Paris, the mysterious fog covering the streets and the lower floors of buildings, the central couple taking refuge in the higher floors, sharing an apartment with an elderly couple (including the veteran French actor, Michel Robin). The couple is played by Romain Duris and Olga Kurylenko. Their main concern is for their daughter, protected in a glass bubble.

The father has returned from Canada and there are hopes of some kind of remedy. However, the drama is in the present, the threats to the daughter in the bubble, the need for more oxygen, and then the need for a renewal of batteries. First the father ventures out, experiencing some of the mayhem in the streets, the threats. Then the wife has to move out for her husband, hoping for the batteries.

There is always the danger of the breaking of the glass bubble. And the possibility that some might be immune and survive – which means an apocalyptic parable, the story of a plague, destruction but a remnant living on.

1. The title? The mist? Mysterious plague? An apocalyptic story?

2. The Paris settings? The apartment block? The different apartments? The roof and the ruse of Paris? The mist, the devastation in the streets, the mist rising? The musical score?

3. The focus on the family?

4. The introduction of the family, mature, his work, at home, Anna and her love for her husband? Their daughter, Sarah, age, sealed in the hermetic glass bubble? Their coping? Mathieu, going away on business, going to Canada, the hopes for some kind of help for Sarah? Anna and her hesitations? Sara, her life in the bubble, the screens and her contact with the boys in similar circumstances? The touch of love?

5. The earthquake, the reverberations, the consequences? The mist rising in the streets? Covering the streets, covering the buildings, continually rising? Sarah safe in the bubble? Her parents having to cope, going to the upper floors, Lucien and his wife, the welcome? Working out how to survive? The concern about Sarah?

6. Ways of coping, the masks, Mathieu going out into the streets, seeing the dead bodies, the confrontation with the policeman, the mask, shooting? The bike, his injuries? The dangers of being killed? Going to Sarah, reassuring her?

7. Sarah, her fears, communication with the boys? Parents reassuring her?

8. Time, oxygen, masks, the mother going down, the changing of the batteries? The mother being caught? Death?

9. Lucien and his wife, their happy lives, marriage, the wife and forgetfulness, the decision to stay and die peacefully?

10. Mathieu, going out? The dangers? The breaking of the bubble? The irony that people would die but that those with the disease could survive and live? The scenes of Sarah running in the grass?

11. An apocalyptic parable? Destruction of the humans? A remnant surviving?