Diables, Les

French cinema is broadly characterised by its high quota of vapid designer chic films and bourgeois comedies as well as a notable tradition of hard-hitting “social conscience” films. Les Diables belongs to the latter end of the spectrum and is impressive in many ways.

The film deals with the lot of two children, Joseph (Vincent Rottiers) and Chloé (Adele Haenel), the latter who seems to be suffering from an advanced type of autism, in their search for the parents who abandoned them as infants, leaving them to a childhood shuttling between institutions and foster homes.

The performances by the children, who carry the weight of the film, both of whom had a personal history of disturbance and who worked with the director for six months prior to filming are quite remarkable. Even more remarkable is the film’s treatment of their nascent sexuality. It has a candidness which is inconceivable in Anglo-American film.

Written by Ruggia with Olivier Lorelle Les Diables is, as intended, an often unsettling film although there is too much attention given to the destructive antics of the little devils, particularly in the second half, events which seem so contrived on both a large and small scale, as to both distract from the poignancy of the children’s plight and have one raising questions about the verisimilitude of the story, a quality which is the keystone of effectiveness in realist film. As it becomes reiterative so the performances of the children seem less convincing as if they, like us, are getting tired of the endless running and fighting. Had the director kept a more intimate frame of reference this probably would have been a much more effective film.

 

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