The Guardians

Director Xavier Beauvois’s The Guardians, set on the French homefront during World War I, is adapted from Ernest Pérochon’s 1924 novel. When her sons Georges (Cyril Descours) and Constant (Nicolas Giraud) are sent off to fight in the trenches, Hortense Sandrail (Nathalie Baye) is left to run the family farm along with her daughter Solange (Laura Smet), whose husband Clovis (Olivier Rabourdin) is also away. Finding the work too much to handle by themselves, Hortense hires an orphan, Francine (Iris Bry), to help, and when Georges returns on leave, he becomes attracted to Francine. Hortense disapproves, and after rumors begin to circulate about not only Francine but Solange as well, she fires the girl. While this narrative might sound melodramatic—there are also inevitable visits by officials to convey news of deaths at the front—Beauvois stages even the most emotional scenes with quiet, unhurried grace, accentuated by lush widescreen camerawork that makes the images look museum-ready. Encompassing the period from 1915 to 1919, the film beautifully visualizes the modernization of French rural life, illustrating how manual labor in the fields was gradually replaced by farm machinery, just as warfare was being transformed to devastating effect. Ending with an homage to Stanley Kubrick’s classic Paths of Glory, this potent World War I film is recommended. (F. Swietek)