We know that both Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard are hugely talented actors and we also know that in real life they have been in a relationship since 2007 and have a child together, but seeing them in Le dernier vol it is difficult to believe either of the above statements. It is also difficult to engage in the film as the only positive is the cinematography. Apparently a true story, it is set in 1933 yet there is absolutely no sense of period and certainly no period 'feel'. The early thirties was a time when aviators were still attempting new records even six years after Lindbergh's solo Atlantic crossing. We enter the film when a pilot (who we never see) has crashed his plane in the desert in North Africa and has been missing for five days. His long-time mistress and fellow pilot (Marion Cotillard) is searching for him and attempts to get help from a detachment of the French army, themselves about to wage war on rebel tribesman. Essentially we have an uneasy merge of 'quest' movie and Boy's Own Paper conflict between the martinet commander and the peace-loving officer who has spent years winning the trust of the tribesman. To describe it as a disaster is to err on the side of kindness.
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writers_reign22 November 2013
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jotix10010 October 2012A small French regiment in the Sahara is having difficulties in their position about an enemy that looms not far away. Into their camp a small two engine plane arrives. To everyone's surprise it is a woman pilot. Marie Valliers de Baumont has come to the area where she believes her fiancé must have had an accident. The French officers, especially Antoine Chauvet, is skeptical the fallen aviator survived, but in Marie's heart, she knows they made a pact and she will find him.
When a sand storm destroys Marie's airplane, she has no other choice but to stick around the soldiers, something Chaubet is reluctant to allow. Marie prevails and become part of the small division. After being attacked and suffering casualties, Chaubet and Marie do everything possible to continue, but the Sahara has another idea for them.
The film directed by Karim Dridi, who co-adapted the material from a novel by Sylvain Estibal. He was trying to re-create an atmosphere in the inhospitable Sahara desert with a built in romance. It was inevitable that Marie and Chaubet ended up together because the passion their encounter provokes in spite of their differences when they first meet. One thing though, Marie had the best intentions for locating the remains of the lost plane, which turned out to be closer than what they thought it would be.
Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet had collaborated with more success before. Their appearance in this movie will not add anything to both of their careers. The gorgeous locations were photographed by Antoine Monod and Le Trio Jourban contributed to the tuneful musical score. -
marjoriem24 September 2010Marion Cotillard, Guillaume Canet, a full complement of Touareg tribesmen in picturesque robes, beautiful desert landscapes -- sounds good, yes? But what we get is a slow-paced, dreary movie which seems to have no particular point to make.
We are in the French Sahara in the 1930s. A conflict is established between a gung-go French captain, the commandant of the local garrison, who is determined to gain glory and promotion by crushing a local rebellion, and his lieutenant (Canet).
The lieutenant appreciates the local culture, speaks the local language and tries to rein in the captain. In flies a French aviatrix (Cotillard) -- she's searching for her lover, an English pilot who has crashed in the desert.
Actually, now that I think of it, there IS a point -- to show that Cotillard looks fetching on a camel. In this the film succeeds but not in much else. -
wardiego13 June 2010To begin with, the plot is absolutely uninteresting. We have a french aviator woman, who comes in the Sahara to search for her missing husband, and an anti-colonialism french soldier who wants to defend the nomadic people.
So what happens in the movie ? Well... they move through a part of the desert, and... that's pretty much it. One or two sub-plots are started, but not finished, the movie wants to focus on its characters, but the total absence of background makes them empty, and we don't care for them a second.
To sum it up : no story, boring characters, uncreative cinematography, and a slow, horrible pace. -
stanrocklin28 September 2010One needs to remember that French (and films from other foreign countries) films are not like American films. Neither the ending, nor the writing, nor the production may be what you might expect if most of what you see are American films. We liked the film, it wasn't great, but I do not consider it a waste of my time. We watched it on TV5, the DISH-TV French extra cost channel. TV5 gave DISH the wrong description, as it was for ONE LAST FLIGHT, a movie about a boy & his grandpa who share their love for aviation. Surprise, surprise, it was about a woman trying to enlist the French Foreign Legion (Légion Étrangère) to help her. We saw it in French and I ignore the subtitles, but my wife reads them. I'm French, she's English. We both concurred that the woman pilot looking for her lost love was NOT married to the lost love (as said elsewhere on this page). He was married to another. Anyway, just take these films for what they are, just a fantasy, and dismiss your critical sense and let your imagination put you right up on that screen, next to the characters as they play out their parts. That's my goal. Hope this helps. Rocky in Arizona
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karyne-richard11 May 2013Big fan of French and foreign films. Huge fan of both mains actors. I really don't understand how they ended up in such a boring and disappointing movie. No storyline, no action, there's not even an end to this movie. It's like they didn't have enough money to finish filming this garbage. To say i'm even a fan of intellectual type movies, this doesn't even qualify in that category. I had almost bought it new at 35$ because i'm a fan of both actors and french films and i didn't... Bought it used at 4.99$ and i still think it was too much. I'm so disappointed and wasted an evening. The only good thing was the music: very middle-east, Morrocan type, which is why i gave this a 2 out of ten.
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dvazp21 July 2011The film has some good points. It begins as a film about a French lieutenant in French Sahara who is trying to prevent his idiotic captain from causing a full-on crisis between the army and the Touareg. Along comes a French woman looking for her lost lover. At first it's just a distraction from the main, more interesting plot. Thus, for the first hour I really got into the film and was expecting to see the conflict between the French and the Touareg lead to an exciting climax. However, as the woman's story takes over the film turns into a disaster of boredom.
None of the characters are well developed, and it is particularly sad that none of the Touareg were developed as characters. On the good side, the visuals are nice, the soundtrack excellent, and Marion Cotillard is pleasant to look at.
Overall, this film is a prime example of could-have-been-better. A greater focus on the Touareg characters and their motivations, a more in-depth representation of the conflict between the French and the Touareg, and subjugating the love story to the background could have made this a great film.