This week, the editorial staff of La Vie offers you several documentaries and fictions with a historical dimension, such as the feature film The Last Viceroy of Indiabroadcast on Arte, which, as its name suggests, retraces the fate of Lord Mountbatten, responsible for preparing Indian independence.
Still on the Franco-German channel, another fiction, this time about the life of Cardinal Lustiger, appointed bishop of Orléans in the 1970s. On France 2, we offer you an immersive dive into the Paris of the Middle Age, led by Stéphane Bern and Lorànt Deutsch. We then leave the historical domain to approach that of the scientist, with a documentary on the similarities between the two geniuses Einstein and Hawking. Finally, place on a topic of current French society: the distress of the agricultural world, illustrated by a powerful documentary entitled Peasant Sacrifice. Have a nice week on your screens!
SATURDAY – Einstein-Hawking, the universe unveiled
Documentary
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 and Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018. The temporal coincidence bringing together these two geniuses of physics deserves to be noted. Between them, these scientists have upset our conception of the universe. With his theory of relativity, Einstein thus succeeded in redefining the notions of time and space. Work that has a decisive influence on Stephen Hawking, whose innovative research on the nature of black holes has made a mark. Einstein and Hawking thus never met but possess this ability to conceptualize the universe in a radically new way.
The first part of this documentary, rich in archive images and testimonials, focuses on Albert Einstein and tackles with pedagogy complex notions to apprehend for ordinary mortals. “I don’t have any particular talent. I’m just passionately curious” , declared Einstein in particular, whose observation, in 1905, of the medieval clock in Bern inspired him to reflect on the nature of time. A fascinating documentary on the content and pleasant on the form, which makes you want to discover the second part devoted to Stephen Hawking. J.B.
Art, 8:50 p.m.
MONDAY – The Last Viceroy of India
Film
Among the historical frescoes on the British colonial empire, here is the latest. March 1947, in India. Lord Mountbatten, brilliant admiral and member of the royal family, is appointed Viceroy of India. After 300 years of English domination, the country is on the verge of implosion. As soon as he arrived, Lord Mountbatten, played by Hugh Bonneville, set about the hard task of preparing for independence with Nehru, future Indian Prime Minister, Gandhi, spiritual guide and champion of non-violence, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder from Pakistan.
The scenario skilfully mixes the big and the little story through the destiny of a couple broken by religious conflicts. Seventy years later, the facts unfortunately still have a sad resonance, starting precisely with the relations between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. The director, Gurinder Chadha, a former BBC journalist, wanted to tackle this delicate subject, linked to her origins, after having triumphed in lighter productions over the Anglo-Indian community (Play it like Beckham). A well-made, highly educational film. FR
Art, at 8:50 p.m.
TUESDAY – Let yourself be guided. The Paris of the Middle Ages
Magazine
If you still believe that in the Middle Ages, Paris was grim, dirty and dark, this new issue of Let yourself be guided, devoted to the capital during this period, could well make you change your mind. Stéphane Bern and Lorànt Deutsch, on the contrary, show us a city in full evolution, welcoming for example a real university in the district where Latin was spoken a lot.
In the one known to be regularly flooded which is called “the Marais”, the inhabitants then try to erect new, more solid constructions. We also discover how to execute the condemned by justice: by being quartered or scalded! The history of the great names of the time is also remembered, such as that of Saint Louis or the Count of Paris, Eudes, who became King of France. Masterful 3D reconstructions, such as that of the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, accurately recreate the atmosphere of the time. The sequences are linked at a steady pace, so that we do not see the two hours pass! ES
France 2, at 9:10 p.m.
WEDNESDAY – Peasant sacrifice
Documentary
On May 20, 2017, after a nine-day run, Jérôme Laronze, a cattle breeder, was shot dead by the gendarmes, at the end of a road, in his car. The 37-year-old man, spokesperson for the peasant confederation of Saône-et-Loire, plagued by administrative disputes, refused to comply with yet another health check, and chose to escape to denounce what revolted him for years: an agricultural system subject to hyper-industrialization, ever more restrictive and demanding regulations and administrative controls, with wages dependent on European subsidies, leading to an injunction to extend farms ever further.
With disastrous consequences for the farmers: permanent stress, the feeling of being cornered by controls, physical and psychological exhaustion increased by loneliness… and often leading to suicide. “Sometimes we see the controllers more than members of our family” says a breeder.
“The only intervention of the administration, today, is to solve the problem of the animals, but never to manufacture any support for the breeder who is losing his footing”testifies, meanwhile, Yannick Ogor, breeder and author of the impossible peasant (the Edition of the end of the city). Starting from this dark news story, this documentary, interspersed with archive footage, testimonies from peasants, trade unionists, state agents and journalists, paints a concise and dramatic panorama of peasant malaise in France. A gripping story, carried by the voice of Jacques Gamblin. ALF
Art, 10:50 p.m.
FRIDAY – The Métis of God
Film
Awarded in 2013 at the Luchon Television Creation Festival, this fiction depicts the life of Cardinal Lustiger. It began with his appointment as Bishop of Orléans in 1979, at the age of 53. And ends with the evocation of his death, in 2007, in Paris, where he was consecrated archbishop in 1981.
A few flashbacks show him as a child, struggling with the rise of anti-Semitism. The common thread is the double attachment of Jean-Marie Aron Lustiger, a Jew baptized at the age of 14, in 1940, both to his Hebrew sources and to the Catholic Church. The man owes his meteoric rise to his friendship with John Paul II.
The long sequences which depict their face-to-face underline how much the pope appreciated the energy of “Lulu”, her intelligence and her unusual culture. At the risk of sometimes overplayed scenes. The actors are not doing so badly, however, Laurent Lucas the first, who composes an iconoclastic Cardinal Lustiger. We can regret however that the latter has too much of a share here, whereas in his time he aroused as much hostility as admiration.
Still, we will receive this opus, smoothly conducted, as a beautiful and intelligent invitation to (re) discover an extraordinary servant of the Church. JCN
Art, at 8:55 p.m.