It is my third day at TIFF, the Transilvania International Film Festival. If you’ve been tracking my diary since Sunday you may have read my thoughts on the superb documentary Living The Light – Robby Müller, or the Nicolas Cage masterclass from the day before – hit the links to go see – but here’s a new entry, my thoughts on a film I caught at lunchtime, Through The Fire, an intense French movie from filmmaker Frédéric Tellier.
Pierre Niney and Anaïs Demoustier give two wonderful performances in this enthralling drama about a married couple who go through a massive trauma that deeply affects their personal lives. The movie starts off like a more intense, modern version of Backdraft. Niney is Franck, a determined and relentlessly driven firefighter in present-day Paris. We see him tackle everything from reviving an elderly woman as she lies unconscious on the floor of her apartment, to dealing with a gory suicide on the city’s Metro system, through to cutting into a car to get to a woman who has suffered massively in a nighttime vehicle collision. Franck manages to somehow deal with the mental impact each of these events, always returning home to his wife, Cécile (Demoustier), who is pregnant with two twin girls.
We follow Franck and Cécile over a period of months, the young firefighter strictly sticking to a vigourous daily regime of keeping up his physical fitness, carrying out the demanding day job, and studying for an upcoming exam which will see him promoted in rank amongst his team.
One day, his life is changed for good as his fire squad is called to a massive warehouse fire on the outskirts of the city. The Backdraft comparison starts (and ends) here with Tellier and his team staging a hyper-real, truly intense, action-packed sequence that ends with Franck suffering terrible injuries after being stuck on an upper floor of the warehouse with no way out. He does manage to escape but at a cost. He has horrific injuries and has to go months of hospital care and rehabilitation – and this is where his journey really starts, the film documenting the pain and suffering his accident puts on the couple, their two small children, and immediate family.
The pre-title card informs us that the film is based on true events, a fact that makes the movie all the more harrowing. Niney is excellent in the central role of Franck, the actor having to, for a large proportion of the movie, act through a head full of bandages and convey emotion without having to say a word. It’s an absolute masterclass, but plaudits have to go to those around him, particularly Demoustier as Cécile, and Vincent Rottiers as Franck’s workmate Martin who also has his own personal issues.
The film’s narrative spans a couple of years but Tellier and co-screenwriter David Oelhoffen employ clever filmmaking and editing moves to move the narrative on without the use of ‘x months later’ cards or other brash, cliched techniques, it all crafted perfectly into a totally absorbing two-hour feature.
There’s some really excellent cinematography from Renaud Chassaing too, the first half of the film staged with the camera constantly moving, as opposed to the very different, much slower though equally compelling second half where the camera hardly moves at all. Combine that with a rousing score from Christophe Lapinta and you’ve got quite an emotional journey with this couple, both of who you end up empathising with as the movie approaches its climax.
It was at this point when I totally lost it, breaking down in tears quite unexpectedly.
Through The Fire is another great find and yet another one to track down when it is released – just prepare yourself for some serious, though sometimes melodramatic subject matter that will definitely leave a mark on you as you leave the auditorium. I’m happy to report that it has distribution after being picked up by Signature earlier in the year. We’ll keep you posted of a release date, which is still TBC but do keep it at the back of your minds and check it out. You won’t be disappointed.
