Life and Nothing But

France, 1920. The war is over and three hundred and fifty thousand soldiers are missing. Major Dellaplane's job is to count them, identify them and where possible return them to their families. At the same time the state wants something else from him: select the Unknown Soldier to be placed beneath the Arc de Triomphe. Dellaplane regards that second task as theatre and is disgusted by it. Bertrand Tavernier directs. Philippe Noiret plays Dellaplane and Sabine Azéma plays Irène, a woman of means looking for her husband. The film shows no combat. It shows only the aftermath: bodies brought out of tunnels, tags that do not match, ledgers, registration tables and the women who arrive every day. Tavernier looks for the scale of the war not in the fighting but in this accounting. Noiret won the César for Best Actor. The film took the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language. The role of numbers is worth watching. Dellaplane counts constantly, lists, quotes proportions, and that coldness is what carries the film's emotional weight. Who it is for: viewers curious about the aftermath of the First World War and about the relationship between the state and grief. Who it is not for: anyone wanting action or pace. It is slow, talkative, and set almost entirely inside a bureaucratic task.