THE RIVER'S SONG

Pierre Mathiote / France / 1h25

Synopsis

The Loire and the poet: a love story.

On our previous editions, proposals like Refugee Poetry, Benjamim Zambraia or Clownery came and quenched the Croco’s thirst for poetry. For this one, it’s « Le Chant du Fleuve » that turned up. Not a trifling specimen! Wrapped up in its concept, the feature-film’s narrators assemble local authors’ verses to personify the Loire and her human lover, giving them a voice, while a profuse backdrop of illustrations is brought. We will start with the negative side (or rather, with what might discourage), so as to get rid of it and quickly get to the main aim of our review: all the undeniable qualities that seduced us in this atypical film.

What we debated about

Like lots of experimentations that seek to be both poetic and pictorial, « Le Chant du Fleuve » inherently requires a certain state of mind— a contemplative one, let’s say. Basically, you’ll have to be ready to hang on a bit. The film is therefore not very accessible when the viewing begins. The chosen format’s length also increases a little monotony, which goes with the stance. We are not complaining about it at all, but it’s something you should know before you throw yourself into the movie.

As paradoxical as it seems, we found the sound-editing occasionally quick. Maybe a way not to extend the feature’s duration? But often, two poems or two themes come one after another either directly or with just an expeditious fade to black on-screen; we think that the transitions with a clearer separating break worked better.

Text sometimes slots into the imagery. There are two kinds: a few quotations from the read poems (so emphasis on literary extracts), and the name of some locations (documentary purpose). One can think these (rare) written sentences are judicious or not. As for the informative contextualisation-headers: we do prefer the ones appearing during music or silence— rather than when they encroach on the lines’ progression, since the audience has now to read inscriptions while assimilating some other words by ear.

What we love

Generosity is everywhere here, and it delighted us.

Let’s start with photography. Mathiote strives to vary the angles. We enjoy this will to avoid repetitions of frames, regardless of the wide-shots’ predominance, with different styles of pictures and camera movements (plus a few effects). The colour grading, alternately contrasted or hazy, follows the mood and espouses the speech. The amount of involved material is amazing; not once in 1h25 have we got the impression that the same shot was shown twice— no easy task in a work featuring nonfictional basic rushes whose protagonist is a river or a territory!

The overall structure turns out to be quite astute. Many little scenes stand out, for instance the animal or human interventions that nicely come and surprise us in dribs and drabs. The film will especially wait for its second half to incorporate deeper visual variants, which is a good choice: whereas you think you’ve explored all the possibilities of what simple landscapes-pictures can narrate, you find yourself intrigued anew by the upsurge of a quasi-journalistic photo-reportage, then by personal video records.

In the soundtrack, several musical atmospheres accompany the whole thing, including a frequent unifying piano. But here the main element is of course the text. The poems are as beautiful as well-chosen and cleverly used. The readings’ expressiveness plays a crucial part (neat performance by Manue Fleytoux & Tony Marot). The voices remain calm and flowing like waves, with a few faster impulses (example: the flood) always well-placed. The dramatic dimension brought at the end makes the last dialogue an umpteenth high-point of the flick.

Thus, a love discourse was formed, on different levels— the characters who verbally express themselves, the film that embodies fondness for arts and nature, the director and his vibrant declaration for the country…

Bonus: for non-French-speakers, the translation (English subtitles) was adapted to keep a rhyming writing style; we hail the achievement.

Conclusion

Quite a unique creation, elegant and thorough. Despite its fullness, it is the endeavour’s authenticity and personality that stay with the viewer afterwards. Pierre Mathiote and his Loire will seduce a lot, for sure!

S.I.

« Le Chant du Fleuve » joins official selection for the Little Croco Festival’s third edition, nominated in the Experimental category.

Trailer: