Un héros très discret comprises short fragments from a fake documentary making it look as if the protagonist really existed. It is however largely a fiction film with a beautifully detailed and meticulously thought-out screenplay about a special forger. This sound form of fiction that looks at the falsification of reality in life and the media can also be found – equally successfully – in Tanner’s Fourbi, that is also being screened in this programme.Albert Dehousse (Mathieu Kassovitz) is an inconspicuous youthfrom the country who soon becomes aware that you can pretend to be someone else. He never knew his father, and his mother left him in the illusion that he died a war hero. When Albert finds out his father was destroyed by alcohol, he is disillusioned, but also prepared for a greater and more perfect deception. He makes a thorough study of the habits, trivia and quirks of resistance men and manages to become a ‘better’ resistance man that his examples.The film is ingenious, detailed and sharply funny. ‘A sure-footed, deeply ironic comedy’ (Lisa Nesselson, Variety). In fact fake resistance man Albert sets to work as a film-maker who has to shape a character: he collects stories, locations and details for the décor and sticks them on his wall as a screenplay in development. Life as a film. (GjZ)
