The following Film Review earned me a spot in the 2022 MWFF Critics Lab Mentorship...
**SPOILER ALERT**
Who knew the French could paint their typical, artistic poetry through a ‘numbers game’ in Antonin Baudry’s 2019 war/action/thriller film; ‘Le Chant Du Loup’ (A Wolf’s Call)? Of all, it seems the number ‘3’, becomes a theme; first introduced by an onscreen quote from Aristotle;
“There are three sorts of people: those who are alive, those who are dead, and those who are at sea.”
From there, we dive deep into a battle of three; tension, play and serene. While most character decisions require a ‘yes or no,’ a ‘this or that;’ the lead; Chanteraide, aka ‘Socks’ acts as a symbol of the ‘impossible’ third option in-between.
After an initial challenge sees Socks falter under peer pressure and opt for the safe, obvious conclusion; which leads to unfavourable consequences, he makes it his mission to hunt down the answer he heard his intuition call. This is no simple task in an industry where calculations reign over senses...
“This is the military, not art school.”
In Socks’ quest for gratification, he meets ‘a girl’ who may at first seem to be planted in his path as mere romantic distraction, but ultimately is a key plot device. Her words take Socks toward a solution, but an action of hers moves him sideways. In an attempt to playfully sneak and startle, her physical steps are heard by Socks’ ‘golden ear’ on two occasions, while the third time showcases the story’s ironic, tragic ending sublimely.
Shutting off Socks’ biggest weapon of use in the world around him, mirrors the theme that the biggest battle lies within, as two French cohorts find each-other in the firing line. With notions of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ and ‘trust the system/procedure,’ Socks is served a prize for pushing against this, by being one of few survivors post-battle, but loses what makes his life ‘his.’