criterionforum.org

Le combat dans l'ile



Clement (Jean-Louis Trintignant, Il sorpasso) is a wealthy son of an industrialist who lives a secret life as a right-wing terrorist. Double-crossed following an assassination attempt he flees to the countryside with his wife, Anne (Romy Schneider, La piscine) where they stay with his childhood friend, Paul (Henri Serre, Jules et Jim). Clement plots his revenge but Anne falls for Paul and a love triangle is just one of many complications in this multi-layered discovery from the French New Wave. With the support of producer Louis Malle, Alain Cavalier (Fill 'Er Up with Super) directed his debut, a noirish drama beautifully shot by cinematographer Pierre Lhomme (Army of Shadows). While echoing the political turmoil of the 1960s, the film probes bourgeois values and the relationship between sex and violence, acting as a precursor to The Conformist and demonstrating the influence of Chabrol.

LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES:

• 2K Restoration from the original camera negative
• Original uncompressed French mono PCM audio
• Interview with Alain Cavalier from French television show Cinema page (1962, 5 mins)
• Faire la mort: A commentary featurette by Cavalier on photos from the Cinémathèque française (2011, 5 mins)
• Interview with star Jean-Louis Trintignant from the Belgian television show Cinescope (1983, 7 mins)
• The Succulence of Fruit: An interview with French critic Philippe Roger who provides an analysis of the film and Cavalier's work (2020, 37 mins)
• Un américain - Cavalier's first short film about a sculptor who comes to Paris (1958, 17 mins)
• France 1961 - a short film made by Cavalier on the occasion of Zeitgeist's DVD release of the film (2010, 13 mins)
• Behind-the-scenes photos including images from the archive of Louis Malle
• Trailer
• Optional English subtitles
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Ben Sachs who considers the film in the context of the French New Wave and genre filmmaking; and scholar and author of Late-Colonial French Cinema Mani Sharpe looks at the film and its political dimension
• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Curious about this film because of the cinematographer and stars, I figured our resident Nouvelle Vague aficionado dominoharvey would have already commented elsewhere on the forum about it. Boy howdy!:

domino harvey wrote: Le combat dans l’île is stupid as fuck.

But elsewhere it appears zedz really liked it. Might have to be a Christmas present for my husband, who is in love with Trintignant.

It's intriguing but a disappointment. Muddled and a little clumsy. But it looks nice, and the cast is attractive. Schneider is especially good.

Matt wrote: Thu Aug 03, 2023 5:31 am Curious about this film because of the cinematographer and stars, I figured our resident Nouvelle Vague aficionado dominoharvey would have already commented elsewhere on the forum about it. Boy howdy!:

domino harvey wrote: Le combat dans l’île is stupid as fuck.

But elsewhere it appears zedz really liked it. Might have to be a Christmas present for my husband, who is in love with Trintignant.

Well I pre-ordered it while buying a bunch of the low stock items yesterday, so hopefully Domino is wrong!

Another vote for stupid here. That said, it's well shot and the beginning is pretty unsettling, with some strong parallels to our current state of affairs. But eventually it devolves into a reductive metaphor of a love triangle standing in for left-right politics. In which case the right vertex is the most tiresome ugly abusive nonsense that the film insists is an equal counterweight to the left.

I'm happy that Radiance are giving some attention to Cavalier, but, for me, they've picked two of his worst films. Of the early, more conventional ones Mise En Sac (which only does the rounds on backchannels in nth generation VHS-o-vision) is a much more entertaining and wild crime film. Of the middle period, Martin Et Lea and (especially) Un Etrange Voyage are the gems for me, and Libera Me is a great later-period experimental one. I haven't yet checked out his recent (highly spoken-of) video diary ones.

kubelkind wrote: Fri Aug 04, 2023 7:04 pm (especially) Un Etrange Voyage are the gems for me

Caught up with this one not too long ago and likewise enjoyed it, so I’m not entirely unsympathetic to what Cavalier can do. A morbidly unusual father-daughter bonding movie to be sure.

I don’t remember anything about Pater but I see I rated it three stars on Letterboxd, so I hope this helps someone in some way

If it matters to anyone, Tavernier was the one who reviewed this in Cahiers and he liked it quite a bit (ratings from others, including Rivette and Rohmer, ranged from two stars to bullets in the Conseil, so he was an outlier). He also describes Serre as "a Mitchumian hero," which is a take.