‘The Quiet Son’: Venice Review

Dirs/scr: Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin. France. 2024. 110mins

A French father is confronted with the bounds of his love and sense of accountability in The Quiet Son, a drama that examines what occurs to a household when the eldest youngster begins hanging out with violent far-right teams. Directed by sisters Muriel and Delphine Coulin (17 Women, The Stopover), what’s stunning is the extent to which the movie focuses on household dynamics to the exclusion of any form of political commentary – the incorrect crowd the son falls in with are deeply linked to simmering, socio-political discontents that aren’t addressed in any respect. This Venice Competitors title would possibly entice awards consideration in France for its performances, significantly Vincent Lindon who received Finest Actor at Venice, it’s in any other case an completely typical home drama whose focus feels too slender to be saying a lot concerning the nation at this time. 

This narrowness of scope throws Lindon’s efficiency into excessive reduction

Within the tiny village of Villerupt, within the nation’s northeastern nook close to the Luxembourg border, railway employee Pierre (Lindon) lives together with his two sons, 22-year-old Felix, nicknamed Fus, (Benjamin Voisin, from François Ozon’s Summer time Of 85), an unemployed metalworker, and youthful scholar Louis (Stefan Crepon, from Ozon’s Peter Von Kant), who’s about to maneuver to Paris to go college on the Sorbonne. Pierre is making an attempt to do his finest together with his youngsters after the demise of their mom, and the brothers care about one another however couldn’t be extra totally different. Certainly, the screenplay, primarily based on Laurent Petitmangin’s 2020 novel ’What You Want From The Evening’, feels at occasions slightly too conveniently schematic by way of its contrasts and oppositions – Fus conveniently scoffs at Louis’ upcoming training amongst the Parisian elites, reminding us of the truth that he’s more and more interested in far-right concepts. 

However the coronary heart of The Quiet Son isn’t the connection between the siblings, which all the time stays one thing of a neatly drawn Venn diagram fairly greater than a extra advanced, living-and-breathing factor whose contours would possibly change from each day. As a substitute, the Coulin sisters focus extra on Pierre, the daddy who thinks that working exhausting and treating his sons with kindness will someway make their little household unit immune from exterior strain or potential tragedy. As a result of the character is performed by the imposing Lindon, this aspect of the story feels well-rounded. However, upon nearer inspection, it turns into apparent that a variety of that’s right down to the charismatic efficiency fairly than what the story is definitely telling us.

The Quiet Son — an odd title for a movie a couple of younger man who comes residence more and more bloody and overwhelmed up each time he hangs out together with his far-right mates — is shot in slick chiaroscuro widescreen by Belgian cinematographer Frédéric Noirhomme. Right here, too, there’s a sense that the shiny package deal is supposed to paper over a harsher, extra difficult actuality. 

Most baffling is that there’s zero sense that the far proper in France is one thing that exists past the village of Villerupt, not to mention that it’s a huge political motion that has been allowed to develop as a result of sure realities are being ignored by the established political class. We by no means even see how Fus was indoctrinated, who his far-right buddies actually are or why they behave as they do – key info that every one transpires off-screen. As a substitute, the Coulins foreground Pierre’s emotional journey, fairly than exploring why his son has been led astray or digging into the fact that comparable tales are taking place throughout France.

This narrowness of scope throws Lindon’s efficiency into excessive reduction and, when he provides a corker of a third-act speech, you can’t however be impressed. However there’s a nagging sense that it reduces the fact of the far proper to an in any other case nondescript impediment that Pierre wants to beat, as a substitute of a extreme political division that’s consuming away at a variety of already very fragile households in France – and, in its numerous permutations, elsewhere on the planet. This imbalance makes Pierre’s painful journey far much less resonant and common than it may have been.