The Guardians 2017

     This setting of this film is 1915 and life at the Paridier farm.  The men of the family Constant, Georges and Clovis have left fight on the front lines of WWI.  Hortense Sandrail, Henri, Constant’s mother and Clovis’ mother-in-law have taken over the job of running the farm.  Hortense’s daughter Solange also is working on the farm but it becomes too much for Hortense at harvest time.  She contacts the local mayor and he recommends hiring Francine Riant as a housekeeper and farmhand.  Francine is a hard worker and she’s an orphan.  The three women, Hortense, Solange and Francine become a trio of able workers.

    This film shows that there are still fresh stories to tell about WWI.  The work is very difficult and it’s backbreaking to run a rural farm.  Every task falls on the shoulders of Hortense until Francine arrives.  Francine has done all these tasks before and she’s not afraid of the immense farm animals.  They are milking cows, harvesting wheat by hand, making the bales, gathering potatoes from the ground and mucking out the barn.  It all starts over again when they plow and then scatter the wheat seeds for the next harvest.  Hortense asks Francine to stay on after the harvest and they are both happy with this arrangement.   4* (I really liked this movie)   

138 min, Drama directed and written by Xavier Beauvois with Nathalie Baye, Laura Smet, Iris Bry, Cyril Descours, Gilbert Bonneau, Olivier Rabourdin, Nicolas Giraud, Mathilde Viseaux,Xavier Maly, Marie-Julie Maille, Madeleine Beauvouis, Alain Artur, Adrien Denizou, Yann Bean.

Note Imdb 6.8 out of 10, 94% critic 62% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, The Guardian 4* out of 5* Peter Bradshaw, Amazon Video 3.6* out of 5* with 23 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Montrol-Senard, Solignac, Verneuil, Bussiere-Poitevine, Le Dorat, Haute-Vienne, France.  Screened in the Special Presentations section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.  Xavier Beauvois also directed Of Gods and Men,  

Nathalie Baye (Hortense Sandrail) is acting with her real life daughter Laura Smet (Solange).  The film was released on the same day that Johnny Halliday died.  He was the ex-husband of Baye and the father of Smet.