Promise at Dawn Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Promise at Dawn Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 29, 2020

Romain Gary is one of those names which might ring a faint bell with many, even if a complete biography associated with it never fully congeals. Perhaps some will remember that Gary was married for some time to Jean Seberg, and in fact had a child with her, writer Alexandre Diego Gary (Alexandre’s parentage was kept secret for a while since Romain Gary and Jean Seberg were not married at the time of his birth in 1962). Others may recall that (also in 1962) Romain Gary contributed some vignettes to The Longest Day, including one culled from his own war experiences which is repeated in this film to visceral effect. Gary’s writing gave birth to several films through the years, including the 1958 environmentally tinged drama The Roots of Heaven, 1977's La vie devant soi (also known as Madame Rosa, the title under which it won that year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film), and even a previous adaptation of the autobiographical tome that inspired this film, a 1970 version of Promise at Dawn starring Melina Mercouri and directed by her husband Jules Dassin. If Gary is something of a cult item (if even that) on this side of the pond, he’s one of the most celebrated literary figures of the 20th century in his adopted homeland of France. Aside from his protean writing achievements, Gary entered the annals of French legend when he became the only author in that nation's history to win the coveted Prix Goncourt on two occasions. That legend arose because the Prix Goncourt is only supposed to awarded once to any given individual (kind of like one of those "life achievement" Oscars). Gary won under his own name for Les racines du ciel, the novel that gave birth to The Roots of Heaven, but then almost two decades later, he won again under the pseudonym of Émile Ajar for La vie devant soi, which obviously inspired Madame Rosa. Gary actually had to hire an imposter (a relative of his) to accept that second Prix Goncourt, and it was ultimately only after both his suicide note and a posthumously published "confessional" got into this scheme that his subterfuge was revealed.

The fact that Gary did commit suicide might indicate a certain roiling psychology, and for any armchair Freudians out there wondering about the genesis of any turmoil in Gary's mind, Promise at Dawn may give more than enough evidence that it all sprung, in an appropriately Oedipal fashion, from Gary's relationship with his mother. Promise at Dawn is in fact as much about Gary's mother Nina Kacew (played with considerable ferocity by another French legend, Charlotte Gainsbourg) as it is about Gary himself (played by Pawel Puchalski and Némo Schiffman in Romain's younger years, and then by Pierre Niney as an adult). If Nina was the very definition of a "helicopter parent," Romain, while conflicted about the intrusive attention he received from her for virtually her entire life, also seemed to be a willing "co-conspirator" of sorts in the "helicoptering", as this film makes abundantly clear.

Speaking of suicide, Promise at Dawn perhaps rather bizarrely begins with the Day of the Dead festivities in Mexico, where a middle aged Romain is convinced he’s mortally ill with a brain tumor, even if his put upon wife Lesley Blanch (Catherine McCormack) is kind of figuratively rolling her eyes about all the drama. On a long car ride to get Romain to a bigger hospital, Blanch begins reading Romain’s latest work, an homage to his mother. That of course leads to flashbacks, although the “contemporary” Mexican element does return intermittently for some (perhaps unneeded) interstitials.

There are a number of through lines giving shape and coherence to this tale that plays out over the course of several decades. The central issue is of course the relationship between Nina and Romain, which is fraught with an almost obsessive quality, not necessarily only on the part of Nina. But there are other elements, including Nina's penchant for "drama" (both figuratively and literally), as well as frequent references to the pretty pervasive anti-Semitism that Nina and Romain both endured. The film repeatedly offers scenes where Nina kind of ironically both upbraids and encourages Romain, as in a devastating incident from Romain's youth where a bunch of bullies basically beat the you know what out of him after calling his mother various names, and when Romain limps home, instead of receiving nurturing from Nina, he gets a powerful smack up the side of the head and a stern warning that the next time anyone calls her a name to his face, he'd better arrive home on a stretcher. This might help to elucidate that Nina is more than willing to put strictures on him in any case, as in her resolute refusal to let him pursue a career as a painter. One way or the other, though, the guiding force in Romain's psychology seems to be to make his mother proud of his accomplishments.

The film documents Romain's early successes as an author while also detailing some of the problems he encountered in the military. In that regard, a brief and passing reference to Dreyfus may send some scurrying to The Life of Emile Zola for a bit of context, but after initially encountering some vicious discrimination due to his Jewish ancestry, he acquits himself admirably in one of the film's most exciting scenes where as a tailgunner and bomber he guides a badly wounded and basically blind pilot helming the aircraft they're in back to safety.

The film perhaps tips over into a certain moroseness toward the end, an end which doesn't even really deal with Gary's marriage to Seberg and eventual suicide at age 66. Promise at Dawn doesn't quite have the sweep of the best biographical epics, but its intimate portrayal of a mother and son bound by something perhaps even stronger than mere "love" is often involving, if rarely "heartwarming" in a typically familial way.

Promise at Dawn Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Promise at Dawn is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Menemsha Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This is another film of relatively recent vintage where the IMDb is of virtually no help in the technical department (other than its listing for a "DCP" for this film), but I was able to find this rather interesting interview with the film's cinematographer Glynn Speeckaert which gets into both the use of the Arri Alexa XT as well as some of the special lenses that were utilized. The result is an often ravishing looking film, albeit one that deliberately tamps down the palette quite a bit of the time to the point that things can almost look monochrome, or slightly sepia toned. That probably only helps to establish contrast to some of the more vividly saturated moments, as in some outdoor scenes at beaches or scenes ostensibly taking place in Africa (Morocco was evidently one of the locations for the shoot). Detail levels are typically excellent throughout, though there is a lot of dimly lit interior footage where murk can slightly deflate fine detail. Some of the CGI, notably during the big bombing raid somewhat late in the film, can look just a trifle soft and ill defined at times.

Promise at Dawn Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Promise at Dawn features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks in the original French, with optional English subtitles available. The surround track nicely opens up the film's bounteous ambient environmental effects courtesy of the frequent outdoor material, something that's probably unsurprisingly most noticeable in some of the battle sequences or other scenes featuring airplanes. Effects can be placed in discrete channels or, as in the case of some of the flight scenes, panned accurately to mimic directionality of on screen action. Dialogue, including quite a bit of voiceover by "Romain", is always clear and problem free, with good prioritization.

Promise at Dawn Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers includes Promise at Dawn (1080p; 2:12) along with trailers for other releases from Menemsha Films.

Promise at Dawn Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Promise at Dawn will probably serve as a decent introduction to anyone who, as mentioned above, may slightly recognize Romain Gary's name without actually knowing all that much about him. The dynamic between mother and son in this film may strike some as off putting, and as such elements in this story may come off as overwrought, but both Gainsbourg and Niney do very fine work here, and the film features an expressive and handsome production design. Technical merits are solid, and Promise at Dawn comes Recommended.