LES REVENANTS (THEY CAME BACK)

France, 2004, 102 minutes, Colour.
Geraldine Pailhas, Jonathan Zaccai.
Directed by Robin Campillo.

Thought the title is translated into English, They Came Back, the characters in this unusual (and implausible) drama are referred to as 'The Risen'. This is a better title because, even though they are The Living Dead, that phrase has too many overtones of gory US horror. The French film-makers here eschew any of that kind of horror.

Immediately we see crowds of The Risen walking back into their city and, gradually into their previous lives. The film examines (rather than explores) the scientific, medical repercussions as well as the social and sociological issues for The Risen and for the living who have to deal with this resuscitation. The film has quite an amount of talk, discussion and expressions of theory. It has been remarked that the film raises issues of how contemporary society actually treats is disabled and ill and the popularions suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. It is interesting (and actually disturbing) that no discussion of the death experience, let alone what life after death is like is offered by the screenplay. The film is minimally interested in the transcendent if at all.

For the audience to deal with this drama, there are three sets of characters to identify with: the mayor who chairs the emergency meetings and his risen wife, 10 year old Sylvain who has been dead six years and his parents who try to resume their happy family life with him and, more particularly, Mathieu who works for the city and resumes his job examining the city's underground tunnels and passages and goes back to his lover Rachel, who has been reluctant to admit that he has returned.

While there are dramatic consequences for The Risen as well as for ordinary people, they are presented in a medium-budget and rather low-key style (a bit strange since we have become used to sensationalism for this kind of story). The focus of the investigation is limited - and a more involving and deeper film might have been made - but what we have is basically interesting.

1. The title, expectations, the opening and the dead coming back into the city?

2. The possibility of these events happening, plausibility?

3. The social perspective, scientific and psychological focus? The absence of anything of the transcendent and of life after death?

4. The situation around the world, the information about the numbers returning from the dead, from recent years, their state, the age range? The phenomenon, the world having to cope, inability to cope?

5. The puzzle about those coming back, the attitudes of ordinary people, the welcome to loved ones, the fear of loved ones, the fear of the Risen, the attempts to relate, getting them back to the workplace, in the homes, the possibilities for normal life?

6. The parallels with the contemporary aged, the ill, those suffering from Alzheimer’s and treatment by society?

7. The Risen and the range of people, men and women, the focus on Mathieu, Sylvain, Martha? The impact on Sylvain’s parents, the mayor, Rachel?

8. The sequences of the assemblies and the discussions, the objective look at the situation, the emotional responses? The range of experts giving testimony, scientific background, developments, medication, observation? The social commentary and the sociological repercussions, especially for employment in the workplace? The mayor and his presiding? Rachel and her presence and her wanting to be absent?

9. The story of Sylvain, his parents finding it easy to discover him, taking him home, his relationship with the dog, playing? The old man and the hurdy-gurdy? The man reappearing, Sylvain knocking on the door, his jumping over the balcony? His parents and their age, experience, the father on the council? Getting back their son, their delight, love? Their hopes? His going to school, playing? Realising that he would always remain ten years old, the mother letting him go, the grief of the father?

10. Martha, her age, the mayor’s love for her, at home, her appearance, worry about her face? Her trying to get over the fence, not wanting to eat, wanting to stay at home? Her escape, driving with the mayor, under water, his death?

11. Mathieu and his being alone in the transformed warehouse with the other Risen? Rachel not coming for him? His going back to work, the consequences, his assistant and her support, writing the report, its being incomprehensible? His seeing Rachel, her seeing him? Going back home, the resumption of their relationship, the unease in each, the love (and Gardet watching)? The tensions in their relationship, the memories of the past? Mathieu and his work, the plans of the city, the underground? His taking Rachel underground, her making a decision and not staying? Mathieu staying and the film ending with him hidden underground?

12. Gardet, his work with the Risen, his attachment to Rachel, supervising, spying on Rachel and Mathieu, the rescue, his being with Rachel at the end?

13. Other Risen, the woman in the canteen, the old man with Sylvain? Their all continually walking? Seeing them at their meetings?

14. Their inability to relate well, the issue of memories, mimicry? The slowness of response? The experiment with the balloons for tracking their presence, surveillance? The medical preparation for treating them?

15. The explosions, arranged by the Risen, to distract the police, the presence of the army, the explosives, Sylvain and the old man dying?

16. The finale, the deaths, their being taken away dead in buses? The tombs, lying on the graves, their gradually disappearing into the graves? Sylvain’s tombstone? What were the survivors left with – in terms of their memories, their experience of the Risen?