La Prière (2018)
Directed by Cédric Kahn

Film Review

Over the course of the past three decades, Cédric Kahn has proven to be an exemplary auteur filmmaker, bringing fresh insights and considerable self-taught flair to his thoughtful cinematic reflections on the existential concerns that underpin modern life.  Even his infrequent brushes with genre cinema - the seductive thrillers Roberto Succo (2001) and Feux rouges (2004) - reveal a deep-seated concern with the dark neuroses and self-destructive tendencies of modern man, although it is in his more naturalistic-leaning dramas - L'Ennui (1998) and Les Regrets (2009) - that this is most keenly felt.

La Prière (a.k.a. The Prayer) is an atypical film for Kahn, although it deals with themes (social alienation and inner conflict) that are essential to his oeuvre.  In contrast to much of the director's work to date, where the central protagonist is driven ever downwards by forces beyond his control towards his own private hell, this time the trajectory is remorselessly upwards, from darkness to light.  The film is concerned with a wild young man, Thomas - played with remarkable conviction by Anthony Bajon in his first major screen role - who attempts to overcome his heroin addiction by joining a rehab centre of the most austere and exacting kind.

Thomas's path to redemption is, as you might expect, far from pain free.  Kahn spares us none of the physical and mental ordeal his protagonist must undergo in order to rid his body of his destructive craving for narcotics and, in doing so, achieve maturity and a new sense of purpose in life.  Bajon's astonishingly authentic performance makes this somewhat fantastic transformation all the more believable and succeeds in masking on or two shortcomings in a screenplay that risks being a tad superficial in its prosaic handling of some incredibly complex issues.

Kahn's masterly mise-en-scène continues to impress, this time achieving a harmonious balance of the biting realism of his early naturalistic drama Bar des rails (1991) and alluring cool lyricism of later films - Une vie meilleure (2012), Vie sauvage (2014).  There is an unmistakable Bressonian influence, not only in the film's central theme of transcendence through faith, but also in its pared back directorial approach, with big close-ups used liberally and deftly to reveal the protagonists' confused emotions and inner struggles.

Even though it takes its central character in the reverse direction (from darkness into light), La Prière has more than a vague resonance with Robert Bresson's later films - Le Diable probablement (1977) and L'Argent (1983).  What these films have in common is the mutability of the human soul and how the decisions we make can either make us or break us, cast us down into the deepest pit or elevate us up to the highest state of being.  The pessimism of Bresson's late work is effectively countered by the optimism of Kahn's film.

The film's title risks giving a false impression that this is a solemn foray into religiosity, of the kind taken by Jean Delannoy in the later stage of his filmmaking career (Bernadette (1988)).  Kahn is careful to avoid alienating at least half of his audience by not making this an overtly religious film.  La Prière has far more to do about fraternity than faith, and it is clear that the great redeeming power that saves the drug-addicted protagonist is not prayer but the intense bond of brotherly love that he develops with his guardians and fellow sufferers.  On the few occasions when the film does try to play the spiritual card it does so without any real conviction and you are left wondering if Thomas is merely being induced to swap one damaging addiction for another, substituting his craving for heroin for an off-the-peg religious belief that has no firm basis.

Whilst La Prière hasn't quite the dramatic cohesion and emotional impact of Kahn's best work, it is nonetheless an absorbing and intelligent piece of auteur cinema.  Most striking are the mesmeric location sequences, which exploit the magnificent splendour of the Jura landscape to create some truly memorable vistas in which the human spirit is shown to be in complete harmony with the natural world.  These eerily beautiful interludes are bathed in a mystical poetry that counterpoints the brutal realism witnessed elsewhere in the film, graphically evoking the freedom we all seek and the communion between man and nature that is essential for a happy existence.

It's a shame that the impact of such inspired flourishes as this are so readily lost as the film draws to a close, with a lazily tagged-on denouement that is as laboriously man-handled as it is unconvincing.  However, such is the sublime power of Kahn's cinema that even this sin of narrative contrivance is forgiven.  La Prière may stumble once or twice along the way, but it still provides a highly credible representation of a young man's fraught inner journey from solitary narcotics hell towards a grown-up life where he is free to seek real happiness in the company of others.

Film Synopsis

Thomas is an unsettled 22-year-old who has resorted to taking hard drugs to escape from the world from which he feels increasingly estranged.  Aware that his addiction is destroying both his mind and his body, Thomas decides to kick the habit.  To that end, he joins an isolated religious community in the country that is committed to helping young people like him overcome their drug addiction.  It is a harsh and disciplined regime that Thomas is compelled to sign up for, one that consists of hard labour and periods of intense prayer.

Thomas is forbidden all contact with the outside world and must give up not only hard drugs, but also smoking, alcohol, television and girls.  In Marco, one of the community's leaders, he finds a sympathetic but uncompromising mentor.  At first, Thomas finds it hard to adapt to this Spartan mode of existence.  He rebels, runs away, but returns to give it a second go.  Gradually, the harsh programme of rehabilitation begins to work a positive effect on him and it soon looks as if he is becoming a completely new man...