See You Up There

See You Up There (Au revoir la-haut, 2017) is Albert Dupontel's French war drama, available to watch online on iFILM. It adapts Pierre Lemaitre's novel, which took the Prix Goncourt.

The Great War has days left to run. Hungry for a medal, Lieutenant Pradelle throws his men into a pointless assault, and in the chaos soldier Edouard Pericourt, a rich man's son and a gifted artist, saves Private Albert Maillard, losing his lower jaw to shrapnel in the process. Edouard refuses to go home disfigured. He lets his family believe he died, hides behind extravagant masks he sculpts by hand, and pulls Albert in as his partner. Together the two broke veterans cook up a swindle: selling grand war memorials they never intend to build.

Dupontel, who also plays Albert, films postwar France as a carnival of predators, everyone from the state to the gravediggers cashing in on the dead. The mix is rare: pitch-black satire, the sweep of an adventure picture, and real tenderness between two ruined men. Edouard's masks alone are worth the runtime. One for anyone who loves a lavish period drama with a hidden edge. Stream See You Up There (2017) online on iFILM.