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Synopsis:
The relationship between two brothers, the younger of
whom is so enthralled by historical battles that he has lost touch with
reality. At his mother’s request, Mathieu, the older brother, tries to free
his kid brother Paul from his addiction
***** Production notes:
Shooting
began in Paris on September 22,
2008 and continued for nine weeks
wrapping up in November. This is Denis Dercourt's fourth feature,
which focuses on two male protagonists, played by Vincent and
Belgian actor Jérémie Rénier. Co-written by the filmmaker and
Jacques Sotty, the film explores the relationship between two
brothers. In response to the insistent demands of his
cancer-stricken mother, a piano teacher (Perez) tries to cure his
younger brother (Rénier) of his strange obsession with historical –
and in particular Napoleonic – battles. The older, “model” brother
discovers this mysterious passion for which Dercourt has called on
battle reconstruction specialists (in particular those in
Boulogne-sur-Mer). With cinematography by Rémy Chevrin, the film is
being produced by Michel Saint-Jean for Diaphana Films. It has a
budget of around €5.5m. This includes co-production backing from
France 3 Cinéma and a €480,000 advance on receipts from the National
Film Centre (CNC). The movie will be released theatrically by
Diaphana in the second half of 2009.
Director Denis Dercourt:
"Vincent Perez has several facets that seem very
interesting to me. First of all, he is
someone who has a complex career path: he is at the same time
an actor, director and photographer. Secondly, and this was very
important for the film, Vincent is an actor who is very much
identified with period films and period costumes, resulting from
films such as Queen Margot, Cyrano de Bergerac
and Le
Bossu. He no longer has a real desire to interpret this type
of role today, and in my film precisely, you can feel his reluctance
to put the costume on, to blend in with the time period. It
corresponds well with him. Very quickly,
an excellent relationship developed between Jérémie Renier and
Vincent, so good that during the shooting, I was often tempted to
make scenes last longer, just for the pleasure of filming them
together. The further we advanced, the
further the story constructed itself around the friendly dimension
of the fraternal relationship, and that owing to the beauty of the
pair on screen. They are both physical, very focused, very precise
actors who are capable of truly surprising things."
*****
Romain Le Vern, Dvdrama.com:
With this title from a poem by Victor Hugo,
director Denis Dercourt imparts
rumblings under the veneer of appearances.
The film examines the
relationship between two brothers united by a sick mother. The eldest
is a pianist recognized on an international scale but a
man who cannot seem to manage his role as
a father and husband. The youngest takes refuge in a world of
historic battles to the point of being separated
from reality.
Dercourt, director of "The Page
Turner", uses a bold subject as a metaphor
to decipher the psychological cycle of the two
brothers. Everything collapses when the brothers enter
each other's world. Dercourt's intent is to maintain the suspense of what is
real and unreal, mixing the boundaries between threat and bluff. Above all,
he uses the theme of addiction. Oscillating between fluctuating moods and
schizophrenia with both humor and tragedy, the film closely mirrors the
cinema of Jean-Louis Trintignant in "Une journée
bien remplie" (A Full Day's Work -1973)... Vincent Perez has never been
better, his best role ever. But by dint of discretion, the film may pass
under the radar.
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.
Matt Bochenski, Cannes 2009: Reviews & Musings:
What felt like the first ‘regular’ film I saw all day was also the
last, Denis Dercourt’s sumptuous "Tomorrow
at Dawn."
It begins with a rousing prologue that sees Jeremie Renier engaged
in a duel to defend the honour of the Second Hussars. It’s a deft
piece of misdirection, because this is actually a modern,
middle-class tale of Renier’s brother, a pianist played by Vincent
Perez who is having a mid-life crisis. He leaves his wife and kid to
live in his sick mother’s house, where his brother pulls him in to a
world of role play that gets frighteningly real. Chicly photographed
and well performed, it shares a theme common to several of the films
I’ve seen here – about the way in which the true horror and madness
of the human condition can show itself in the unlikeliest places. It
all leads to a terrific pay off, which was greeted with sustained
applause. Télé
Ciné Obs:
Brilliant - Denis Dercourt has the good taste, increasingly
rare, of a director to uphold the two cardinal virtues of the cinema: the
scenario and actors. On a tempo crescendo without fault,
the film offers Vincent Perez his richest role.
Gilles Renault, Libération:
Denis Dercourt (The Page Turner)
proposes once again an extremely original and ambitious project, of a rare
conceptual insolence within the
well surveyed framework of the French cinema. Its film plunges us among the
odd community of role
playing... Among the feats of successful ingenuity by Denis Dercourt, there
is this dry tone and this traditional clarity of setting up scenes despite
the baroque richness of the battles, the characters and the film's subject.
He thus manages to capture the right balance. |
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Cast:
Vincent Perez.....Mathieu
Jérémie Renier.....Paul
Gérald Laroche.....Major Rogart
Françoise LeBrun.....Claire Guibert
Anne Marivin....Jeanne
Barbara Probst.....Christelle
Aurélien Recoing.....Capitaine Déprées
Credits:
Directed
by.....Denis Dercourt
Written by.....Denis Dercourt
Cinematography by.....Remy Chevrin
Music by.....Jerome Lemonnier
Premiered at Cannes under "Un Certain
Regard" on May 19, 2009
Screened at the following film
festivals:
Cannes Int'l Film Festival - May 2009
Montreal du nouveau cinema - October 2009
Golden Horse Film Festival (Taiwan) - November 2009
French theatre release: August 12,
2009
French DVD release: February 11, 2010
2009 Cannes photos
Golden Horse Film Festival photos
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Production Photos
Publicity Photos
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