Sachs' Disease

Doctor Bruno Sachs is the only physician in a small French town. His surgery is never short of patients; everyone tells him things, he listens, and he appears compassionate. Inside it is another matter: he is not happy in the work, he does not like most of his patients, and he cannot say so to anyone. Then Pauline arrives and something shifts on both sides. Michel Deville adapted the film from the novel published in 1998 by Martin Winckler, who is a doctor himself. The telling lines the patients up and gives them in short scenes; each comes in with their own trouble and leaves a residue on the doctor. The real subject is not illness but what carrying someone else's pain all day long does to a person. Albert Dupontel plays the doctor, and the film picked up three César nominations.