Well this is a turn up for the books. French writer-director Bruno Dumont, the champion hawker of tales sparse and dour (Flanders, Outside Satan, Camille Claudel 1915) has turned in a charming and - wait for it - funny coming of age story. What’s more, it’s a miniseries (but selected cinemas like the Irish Film Institute are showing the four episodes mashed together), bringing the running time to nearly three and a half hours when Dumont usually deals with stories that run on the short side (about 90 minutes to 100).
With his skinhead and hearing aid, the eponymous eleven-year-old (Delhaye) looks like the perfect Morrissey backdrop. He’s a typical kid, wiling away his summer holidays on his grandparents farm near Calais and hanging out with Eve (Caron) and the other boys in the area. Their Tom Sawyer antics take a darker turn when a cow is discovered in a WWII bunker, stuffed with human remains. If that was a signal for Dumont to get back to what he does best, he resists the temptation: In steps bumbling gendarmes Commandant Van der Weyden (Provost) and Lieutenant Carpentier (Jore) to investigate.
The plot is really here so Dumont can explore rural lives of these characters, and bring their mannerisms to the fore. Mostly for comic affect, like Van der Weyden’s little nervous tics and the eccentric way grandad sets the table (firing cups and plates at the table). But underneath the quirkiness looms a darkness: racism, adultery, petty jealousies and rivalries bubble away in this 'innocent' setting.
Dumont lends his exterior scenes a sweeping classic-in-the-making aesthetic: the manner in which he has Delhaye and co. running about the fields look tailor-made for a future Mark Cousins documentary or a Mark Kermode introduction where the critics deconstruct the action: the killing of a field mouse and the lobbing of fireworks at campers combine innocent playtime and the foreshadow of violence.
A tough ask to sit through something this length when it was originally intended for four forty minute viewings, those willing to see things through to the end will come away with a different opinion of Dumont. It begs the question: which way will he go for his next one?
