La France (2007)

LA FRANCE  (2007)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Serge Bozon
    Sylvie Testud, Pascal Gregory,
    Guillaume Verdier, Guillaume Depardieu
An absurdist French movie about a woman named Camille, whose husband has gone off to fight in World War One. One day she gets a letter telling her he won't be back and not to write anymore. Determined to find him, she disguises herself as a boy and heads for the front herself. Along the way, she falls in with a small band of soldiers who appear to be walking around lost in the wake of a battle. The key to a movie like this is wondering whether the woman with the cropped hair and trousers could actually pass. Sylvie Testud's performance is ambiguous enough that way to leave the question open, but she's not the only one flirting with androgyny. The soldiers aren't cross-dressing, but every once in a while, out of the blue, they pull out musical instruments and break into song. They sing very badly, and the song's always the same: a rambling, first-person account about a blind girl and her numerous unlikely lovers. It all plays out like a dream or a nightmare, and Testud plays Camille with a deadpan stillness that commands your attention. Now if some enterprising French filmmaker would just make a Buster Keaton movie. And get Sylvie Testud to star.