Profils paysans: la vie moderne (2008)
Directed by Raymond Depardon

Film Review

La Vie moderne isn't so much a documentary as an essential sociological document which records for posterity a way of life and a class of humanity that are fast becoming a thing of the past.  The third part of Raymond Depardon's remarkable trilogy of rural life - following Profils paysans: le quotidien (2005) and Profils paysans: l'approche (2001) - its main focus is the continuity of the old peasant farmer life, the passing of the baton from one generation to the next.  The film's title may appear ironic but it is a statement of fact, since the way of life which the men and women depicted in the film have adhered to for seven decades or more is very much in tune with modern ecological concerns, and, in a real sense, they represent the future of our race, human beings working with nature to build a sustainable life for themselves whilst preserving the environment.  It is we who are the anomaly, destined for extinction, not they.

Yet, despite this positive overarching assertion, the film also has a tragic personal dimension.  Most of the people we meet in the film are in their eighties, struggling to keep their farms going with no prospect of handing over their businesses or their knowledge to the next generation.  There are a few glimmers of hope - a little boy is eager to become a farmer when he grows up; some young people are working hard to make a living on the land, despite the difficulties.  But the tone of the film is overridingly melancholic.  Marcel (80) and Germaine (70) are facing the reality that they must soon sell their farm as their children have no interest in the life.  Raymond (83) watches helplessly as one of his beloved cows dies from an incurable disease, whilst his brother Marcel (88) no longer has the strength to take his flock of sheep up into the hills.  As you take in these personal crises, you can't help feeling that something is wrong, that this generation of extraordinarily resilient and hardworking people has been betrayed - not so much by their children, but by the materialistic era in which they find themselves, an era that does not sufficiently respect or value what they are doing to preserve the ecosystem, the rural traditions and our precious countryside.

As he reveals in his narration, Raymond Depardon grew up on a farm, although he left the milieu when he was sixteen to pursue a very successful career as a photo-journalist and documentary filmmaker.  Depardon's nostalgia for a way of life that has now virtually passed away is evident both in the way he films the isolated farms and their time-wracked owners and also in the way he extols the virtues of the old-fashioned agricultural life, which is less a career and more a vocation, far more concerned with preserving the land and respecting nature than in extracting the greatest profit.  Depardon's commentary is as moving and insightful as the hesitant responses his shy interviewees give to his questions, and it is hard not to share his sorrow for a world and a culture that are rapidly fading away, unseen and unlamented by most people.  La Vie moderne is an eye-opening and deeply moving film, one that leaves you with an aching sense that paradise is well and truly lost.

Film Synopsis

Raymond Depardon is a photographer and documentary filmmaker who has long had an interest in the rural landscape and traditional methods of farming.  He grew up in the countryside on his parents' farm and understands something of the psyche of those who make their living on the land using the old ways, unwilling to take advantage of modern methods of doing things, even if it might make life easier for them.  In this documentary, Depardon returns to the kind of a modest rural farms that he knew as a boy and makes contact with several men and women of all ages for whom farming has become both a passion and a way of life.  Depardon's leisurely itinerary takes him from Lozère and Ardèche in the south of France to Haute-Saône in the northeast.

The documentary takes in farmers who are nearing the end of their careers and those who are just starting out.  Modern life appears not to interest these stubborn defenders of traditions that date back hundreds of years.  But whilst life may not be easy, they seem to have found a way of life that is spiritually rewarding and completely in synch with nature - and this is perhaps why some are lured from the city to follow their example.  Of course, it's not all roses and wine.  There are immense challenges for those who opt for this way of life.  In the face of competition from bigger, more efficiently run farms, these small-scale concerns are scarcely profitable.  With their children unwilling to follow in their footsteps, some of the older farmers have to continue working well into their eighties.  The world around them is changing at an ever-increasing pace, but they carry on as they always have, like some relic of the past that is gradually fading from memory...