Lisa Nesselson, Screen Daily:
Those who assume classical musicians are sissies may have to adjust their thinking after "Tomorrow At Dawn", in which classical music meets historical battle re-enactments to excellent effect. As with his "The Page Turner" - also an Un Certain Regard selection and the most widely sold French film at Cannes in 2006 - writer-director Denis Dercourt establishes a mood of constant unease throughout. The viewer can sense that bad things will happen without ever knowing when or in what form, and the punchline of this tale is a satisfying surprise.

Set in a masculine world, the film has already sold to several French-speaking territories and should readily find additional takers. By combining a milieu he knows well (Dercourt is a professional viola player who teaches at the Conservatory in Strasbourg) and one he has meticulously researched (the part-nerdy/part-manly and increasingly popular realm of battle reenactments), the filmmaker has hit on an unusual combo that could make a few inroads beyond the art house circuit.

The film starts involvingly with a cluster of men in late 18th century military attire preparing for a swordfight in a misty field. The effort expended by the two adversaries, punctuated by the clang of metal, is thrilling. One opponent draws blood. Cut to a contemporary setting in which concert pianist and composer Mathieu (Vincent Perez) is giving a piano lesson in the tasteful salon of the apartment he shares with his wife and young son.

After the lesson, he drives to the suburban Paris house where his seriously ailing mother (Françoise Lebrun) lives with Mathieu’s younger brother Paul (Jérémie Renier). She will soon leave for a long hospital stay and knows Paul’s emotional stability depends on Mathieu’s support in her absence. Paul works in a warehouse but devotes all his spare time to a clandestine battle re-enactment group centred on two regiments of Emperor Napoleon’s forces.

To say that participants are deadly serious about dressing up and pointing vintage weapons at each other while speaking in the ultra-formal language of a bygone France would be an understatement. In a deftly written series of interactions, Mathieu attends a weekend bivouac and suits up to humour his brother, only to find himself implicated in matters of honour whose ramifications go far beyond play-acting.

Perez, who has several important costume pictures to his credit (Queen Margot, Cyrano De Bergerac, Fanfan La Tulipe) looks well in uniform and handles vintage weapons with flair, in addition to playing short piano passages well enough to convince as an acclaimed pianist. His elegant manners and controlled anger contrast well with Renier’s boyish enthusiasm.Aurelien Recoing is spot-on as a military commander not easily satisfied.

Straightforward but effective widescreen filming and editing keep several emotional layers percolating simultaneously. Dercourt doles out information in gradual doses, toggling back and forth between the demands of the Napoleonic Wars and the obligations of everyday life, until the two are intertwined on a level that demands action. As with Dercourt’s five previous features, the musical score is perfectly chosen and smartly applied.

Cineuropa:
There was a hint of Barry Lyndon in the air this afternoon at the screening of Denis Dercourt’s subtle "Tomorrow at Dawn", presented in official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, in the Un Certain Regard section, which screened the director’s previous work, "The Page Turner" in 2006. Indeed, the original director, who still practises his other profession of violin teacher, sets his story in the astonishing world of fans of historical reconstructions, in this case the Napoleonic army period. This backdrop becomes a dangerous spiral for two brothers.

The plot opens with the return to the family home of Mathieu (an understated and remarkable Vincent Perez), a famous pianist in the midst of an existential and marital crisis, whose mother has to be admitted to hospital for chemotherapy. The older brother comes to keep his younger sibling, the overly sensitive Paul (solidly performed by Jérémie Rénier), company. The latter, a blue-collar worker, is totally enthralled by historical role-play, throwing himself into it as if it were a real-life situation and trying to share his passion with his brother.

Out of brotherly love, Mathieu agrees to join in the experience, but gradually realises that, beneath the disguise, lies a sort of fanatical sect, whose followers’ convictions go dangerously beyond the forest and increasingly realistic military reconstructions.

The musician, nicknamed "Far from the bullets" (for a pianist, "struts about, but isn’t much use on the battlefield") initially gets caught up in the game, before realising that he can’t cope any longer and has to fight for his honour, but above all his life and that of those close to him.

Plunging viewers into impressive period reconstructions, perfectly complemented by the protagonists’ naturalness, from bivouacs and duels in secluded natural surroundings, to a sumptuous candlelit dinner at which the "Emperor’s brave soldiers" recount their exploits to the ladies and provoke their comrades in arms, "Tomorrow at Dawn" confirms Dercourt’s talent and fluid directorial style.

Marrying apparent simplicity with an accomplished command of lighting, camera movements and rhythm, the director offers an elegant and intriguing thriller-like film, which demonstrates a certain perceptiveness in its treatment of human relationships (brotherly bonds, maternal illness, problems experienced by a couple, pupil-teacher relations), whilst negotiating the musical dimension with great ease (on screen and off). This talented combination belongs to an all-round artist, who prefers restrained tension and stylistic subtlety to ostentatious display.