Synopsis
Life and Nothing But (La Vie et rien d'autre, 1989) from Bertrand Tavernier is a war drama you can watch online on iFILM. The fighting of 1914 to 1918 is over, and France is left to count who never came back. Major Dellaplane keeps the lists, and the names run into the hundreds of thousands.
His task has no clear end. He matches dog tags, tries to put identities to bodies no one claimed, and pushes back against officials who want one tidy Unknown Soldier for a monument rather than the truth about each man who vanished. Into this grinding routine walks Irène, a Parisian searching for her husband. At first the two grate on each other. Then something neither of them welcomes begins to grow.
Philippe Noiret plays the major dry and worn out, with no trace of heroics, and the performance brought him a César. Sabine Azéma carries Irène on sheer stubbornness. Tavernier filmed not the battles but their long aftermath — a nation tallying its dead and unsure how to go on living. A quiet, grown-up film that took the BAFTA for best film not in English. Stream Life and Nothing But (1989) online on iFILM.
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