Un héros très discret
1996 Comedy / War / Drama
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Summary
Towards the end of World War II, a young man, Albert, decides to invent his own personal
history as a war hero. He enters the French resistance with uncanny ease and before
long is posted to a French occupation zone in Germany. He finds love, position and
admiration as a hero, but to hold on to all this he must keep up a fiction of his own
creation...
Review
This film has a great deal to commend it. Jacques Audiard's direction is confident
and mature (impressive for a second film), and the photography is exceptional throughout,
capturing the mood of the war years very well without being stifled by it.
The inclusion of apparently modern-day interview segments does distract a little from
the otherwise well-plotted story, but this device does add a kind of documentary feel
to the film which works rather well.
Matthiew Kassovitz is perfectly cast as the wannabe hero and liar-supreme, Albert Dehousse. The actor displays great charm and humour in playing this flawed but very amusing character.
In all, this is a fast-moving, funny and very
entertaining film - all the more unusual given that the majority of French films set in
this period of history are pretty grim and depressing. Un héros très
discret is a welcome change, even if there are more than a few references to the atrocities
of war.
© James Travers 2002
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