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Demisemicenturian 
"Four ever European"
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 Posted - 04/02/2007 : 13:29:18
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I went to see this on Saturday and the 'producers' (I assume actually a marketing company) were there and asked me to fill in a questionnaire afterwards. I was surprised when the B.B.F.C. certificate came up as the title was Indigenes - Days of Glory and I had not known that it was a non-English film. This must have been their intent because one of the questions turned out to be 'Did you know that it would be subtitled and did that affect your enjoyment?' Normally, apart from films with Hindi titles, the box office staff always check that I know a film is subtitled, presumably because some idiots otherwise complain, so I wonder whether they had even arranged that not to happen with the cinema. As I pointed out on my questionnaire, Days of Glory is a very odd title 'translation' as it makes it seem like a generic war film. They've obviously got some kind of strategy going on.
Anyway, it wasn't a brilliant film, but it was good and I am relatively easily won over by stories previously untold. At the end of the film, it tells the audience that the French froze the Africans' pensions when the countries became independent in the late 1950s and were in 2002 forced (presumably by Europe) to reinstate them, only to continue to avoid doing so. However, apparently, the film had such an impact that they now have been/will be paid. (I read this in passing in the paper, so I hope it's accurate.) |
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Airbolt 
"teil mann, teil maschine"
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Posted - 04/23/2007 : 23:33:14
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I thought this was an interesting film in terms of subject matter ( French colonial troops fighting in the " homeland " that thy have never seen ).
Firstly , I was pleased to learn about the impact had in the real world with Chirac reinstating the pensions as you mentioned.
Looked at purely in film terms it suffers a little from having to carry a message as well as introduce characters. I wonder if a french audience got the "Back-story " a little more , certainly regarding the France-Algeria relationship.
However the " short-hand " of war films ( in that each platoon member is a "type" ) eventually comes to fruition. There's the " novice" , the " old hand ", the " romantic " and of course the "spiv" . Plus there's an all too beliavable sub-plot involving the squashing of an inter-racial romance.
As with a lot of films the action sequences are at either end of the film. After the initial action ( storming a MG42 nest )i was getting itchy for some actual action towards the end and the full-on "Private Ryan" last stand in a village is a fitting end piece. The present day endpiece is subtle and not preachy.
OK and probably more important in real terms than as a film.
It was visually interesting to see the mish-mash of Uniforms - there was a fairly odd mixture of US and UK uniforms with occasional French helmets ( I used to be a Wargame enthusiast! )
As a Samy Naceri fan i noticed he appears to have been at the Boulangerie a lot as he was looking very "well-nourished" about the face. |
Edited by - Airbolt on 04/23/2007 23:37:47 |
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Days of Glory
