Modern Life (2008)

Highly Recommended

France

Feature Documentary

Original Title: La vie modern

Director/Cinematographer: Raymond Depardon

Featuring: Raymond Privat, Marcel Privat, Alain Rouvière, Cécile Rouvière, Marcel Challaye, Germaine Challaye, Paul Argaud

Depardon’s strikingly photographed, gently revealing, and achingly sad portrait of rural life – the third part of a trilogy, the first two parts of which remain unseen in the UK – explores the lives of a number of ageing, expressively inexpressive farmers in France’s Massif Central region, poignantly capturing their way of life as it enters its final death throes, having finally (just about) admitted defeat to the forces of industrialisation. Iain.Stott