Cinema
A Self-Made Hero
Un héros très discret
Jacques Audiard · 1996
Synopsis
Albert Dehousse grew up convinced that his father had died a hero in the Great War, before discovering a more ordinary truth. He goes through the Second World War away from the fighting. Nine months after the Liberation, he leaves his wife and his village for Paris, where he reinvents himself as a hero of the Resistance: he studies the accounts, memorises the names and the stories, and gradually makes his way into influential circles.
Context
The film is adapted from a novel by Jean-François Deniau published in 1989. Mathieu Kassovitz plays Albert Dehousse, alongside Albert Dupontel, Anouk Grinberg and Sandrine Kiberlain. The film mixes comedy, drama and war film. The story takes the form of a mock documentary: it is interspersed with testimonies and with the voice of an elderly Dehousse telling his own story, which makes the viewer doubt what he sees.
Who it is for
About one hour forty-five minutes; a fake biography, between comedy and historical chronicle, that plays on credulity.
Prizes and reception
Best Screenplay prize at Cannes in 1996; Studiocanal released it in France on DVD, then on Blu-ray.
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