LA VIE MODERNE (MODERN LIFE)
France, 2008, 90 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Raymond Depardon.
Raymond Depardon is a celebrated French journalist and photographer. He became a documentary maker in the 1990s. Since that time he has worked in partnership with Claudine Nougaret to produce documentaries about people from the French countryside.
Born on a farm himself, Depardon decided to go into the mountains he had been visiting for some years and interview several of the farmers there, many of them elderly, all of them finding the work and financial difficulties hard going, along with some younger people who can scarcely manage.
Depardon knows how to photograph and film people. They really come alive before our eyes. We enjoy listening to most of them, especially two old brothers in their 80s, Marcel and Raymond Privat, who give insights into the past while finding the present difficult. Scenery in different seasons is beautiful.
But, Depardon is a terrible interviewer. He mostly asks questions which lead to a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ answers. And he pauses at length and the often inarticulate interviewees don’t elaborate. When he does ask a questions along the lines of ‘why?’ or ‘how?’, he does get some answers. The danger with his simple questions, simple answers is that the interviewees are made to look stupid at times (not his intention) with the audiences often unwittingly laughing at them, which undermines much of the effect, reducing them to objects of study. A great pity because the farmers and their views and the insights into their lives are well worth hearing.
1.The impact of the film, as a documentary, as a document about rural life in France in the 21st century? As a portrait of characters?
2.Depardon’s background as a journalist, investigative? His background as a photographer and his ability with landscapes, close-ups, portraits and people? The musical score and the use of Gabriel Faure?
3.The title – straightforward, ironies? The disappearance of farmers and farming in France?
4.The location, entering via the roads, down the mountains, the view of distant mountains? Leaving in the same way? The picture of the various seasons in the region? The atmosphere and beauty of the photography?
5.The voice-over, the background of meeting the farmers, the choice of the place, its isolation? Information about each visit, about the previous contacts, about the personalities?
6.The portrait of the Privat farm? The old men, in their eighties (and the flashbacks to Marcel earlier)? The situation, the herds, care for them? The old men, bachelors, passionate about their work? The nephew, his taking over, their judgment on him as not having enough passion, experience? The niece, Monique, and her helping? The importance of the nephew’s marriage? The woman, coming from Calais, with children, her daughter Camille? Living with the nephew, the old men’s disapproval? The marriage? The work on the farm, the old men and their ordering people about, Cecile and her ordering them about, mutual antagonism? The young girl, going to school, wanting to take over the farm? The later visits, Marcel getting older and weaker? Cecile settling in, Camille and her ambitions? The future of the farm?
7.Paul, isolated, watching the funeral of Abbe Pierre on the television, his being a Protestant, not a Catholic, not devout?
8.The old man and his wife, their hospitality, eighty and seventy-year-old, milking the cows, the later having to sell them, retire?
9.The young couple, their taking over the farm of the old lady (and the old lady in the flashbacks), their working hard, finding difficulties, building a house?
10.The young woman wanting to start a goat farm, the children, her husband working for the district? Their candour, the later interview, their having to give up the ambition?
11.The old family, the father and his time in hospital? The other children, Daniel and his staying, having to look after the farm, his not wanting to be there, wanting odd jobs and preferring that? His work in the district?
12.The ability – or not – of Depardon in asking questions? Too many questions for a simple yes or no? Leaving the interviewee somewhat stranded, appearing inarticulate, appearing somewhat stupid – which was not his intention? The better questions of how and why?
13.The impact of this film for French audiences? The realities of farming, of financial change? Economics? For a non-French audience – and comparisons for audiences with life in their own countries?
