The Guardians Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Guardians Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 18, 2018

As devastating as both World War I and (perhaps especially) World War II were to the United States, the fact remains that for the most part the actual mainland of our nation remained unscathed by either global fracas. (While there was of course the attack on Pearl Harbor, some history students may be aware that there were actually some sad casualties in World War II in my home state of Oregon in May 1945 when some picnickers had the unfortunate “luck” to stumble on an unexploded balloon bomb from Japan.) That salient fact struck me quite early in the ravishingly gorgeous if often rather slow moving The Guardians, when a French Lieutenant named Constant Paridier (Nicolas Giraud) is on leave visiting his family at their expansive if somewhat dilapidated farm. Constant reconnects with his elderly parents Hortense (Nathalie Baye) and Henri (Gilbert Bonneau), as well as his sister Solange (Baye’s real life daughter Laura Smet). Constant urges his put upon mother, who is attempting to do a lot of the backbreaking work around the farm herself (why Henri doesn’t chip in more is never adequately addressed, but one assumes it’s an age related issue), to hire some help during the harvest. But when Constant’s leave ends, in a moment that struck me as peculiarly “European”, he simply decides to walk to his destination, which might indeed have been a train station, but which could very well have been to the front itself. The Guardians has already hinted at how “close” the battle is, despite the seeming isolation of the Paridier acreage, with an opening scene showing a pile of gasmasked casualties of the carnage, a vignette which kind of startlingly segues to an almost painterly scene of Hortense plowing the fields. There’s a subtext running through The Guardians that the horrors of war are never that far removed, even if surface appearances might suggest the contrary, and the film kind of inexorably explores the trials of the “women left behind”, in more ways than one as it turns out.

In what might be seen as a kind of gender switch play on at least some elements of the venerable Joseph L. Mankiewicz film A Letter to Three Wives, The Guardians actually ends up revolving around three men who are part of the extended Paridier family, and, like the 1949 outing, each character is given what amounts to a vignette. The briefest of these is the aforementioned Constant, who is the sparking force behind Hortense going to what seems like an employment agency (details aren’t overly clear) to hire a farmhand named Francine (Iris Bry, a film newcomer whose debut performance is quite fetching). Constant returns to the fight before Francine arrives, but his presence is felt in several sections of the film. Even in a meta way (and divorced from any particular character's vignette), The Guardians exploits a kind of overarching vignette driven narrative, with various sections given over to years starting in 1915 (the briefest “year” in the film), all of which are labeled appropriately.

The other two men are Solange’s husband Clovis (Olivier Rabourdin), who, like Constant, initially shows up on leave but who later returns more or less full time, and Hortense and Henri’s youngest son, Georges (Cyril Descours), who arrives partway through the story but then assumes a major role as his relationship with Francine becomes romantic. (Francine has already attracted the eye of the hard drinking Clovis, but kind of interestingly, while there’s perhaps a perceived threatening aspect to this relationship, the film pretty much just elides it.) The story is often pretty langorous, with long moments given over to the breathtaking rural views of the region, many of which seem to evoke old paintings. But there is a potent emotional subtext roiling just beneath the surface sheen of The Guardians that does actually erupt on at least a couple of occasions.

While the film does detail more “masculine” reactions to war like post traumatic stress syndrome (including a kind of hokey hallucination for Georges where he takes out a swarm of Germans only to discover the guy he stabs at the end is himself), The Guardians (a film whose title is saliently in the feminine form in the original French) is really about the women who are tasked with continuing everyday life with virtually all of the (able bodied) men off doing battle. There’s also some interesting class consciousness at play, with the romance between Georges and Francine objectionable not so much because she’s an employee, but because she’s not at the same social level as the Paridiers. (There’s a certain irony to this since Francine, who is glancingly referred to as an orphan, has had a rather substantial education at the orphanage where she was raised, and may in fact be better read than the rustic Hortense.)

While the emphasis may be on the women in general, The Guardians ultimately ends up being Francine’s story, even if that tale is inextricably interwoven with at least Hortense’s. But in a way this is one film where the actual destination may be less meaningful than the journey. In fact, while Francine may be the final focus, there’s a central scene involving Hortense that is arguably the most emotionally hefty of the entire film. That involves one of those moments where not a word is spoken, and in fact little more occurs than Hortense looking over her shoulder to see someone arrive, and yet there’s an instant feeling of dread in the air. This is not filmmaking for the ADHD generation due to a rather (intentionally) glacial pace, but “little” moments like this, while brief, are devastating.

The Guardians Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Guardians is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Music Box Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists the Sony F65 as the digital camera of choice on this shoot, and the results are completely sumptuous, as can at least be hinted at by some of the screenshots accompanying this review. Detail levels are superb across the board, and potentially tricky resolution issues like sheaves of wheat or the close cropped roof tiles and stonework at the farm encounter no problems. The palette is often gorgeously warm and beautifully saturated, and even in some dimly lit moments detail levels never really falter. There's a bit of banding that can be seen in some of the initial mastheads at disc boot up, and even some slight image degradation on the FBI warning (weirdly enough), but no issues within the transfer itself.

The Guardians Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Guardians features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 tracks in the original French (with optional English or French subtitles), and the surround track offers some really inviting spaciousness in the many outdoor scenes. Brief flutters of birds flying south or wind rustling through trees dot the surrounds, and while the mix here isn't overtly showy, it's almost constantly immersive. The film is graced by a sparse but effective score by the legendary Michel Legrand, which also sounds fine throughout the presentation. Dialogue is similarly rendered cleanly and clearly and without any problems whatsoever.

The Guardians Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Q & A with Director Xavier Beaufort (1080p; 20:06) is from after a screening at Lincoln Center.


• Interview with Cinematographer Caroline Champetier (1080p; 12:05) stems from a Richmond, Virginia French Film Festival.


• Interview with Nicolas Giraud (1080p; 13:56) is also from the Virginia festival.


• Recording the Music for the Film (1080p; 4:47) has brief comments from Michel Legrand along with snippets of the recording sessions.


• Audition Scene Tests (1080p; 3:44) also offers some scene comparisons.


• Casting Gilbert Bonneau (1080p; 6:33) is an appealing profile of the actor, who is actually a "peasant" in his own words.


• Sandrail Scene Outtake (1080p; 4:45)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:02)

The Guardians Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

American iconography famously gave the world Rosie the Riveter as a symbol for women at work during wartime, but The Guardians suggests a somewhat more rural if no less committed retinue of females maintaining the "home fires" while the men are away at war. Some potentially turgid melodrama undeniably enters the fray in this tale, and my hunch is some will find this film way too slow, but for me it was a captivating saga of resilience and persistence in the face of almost unimaginable trauma. Technical merits are first rate, and The Guardians comes Recommended.