The Quiet Son / Jouer avec le feu

Directors: Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin

France-Belgium, 2024, 118‘

Directors: Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin

Cast: Vincent Lindon (Pierre), Benjamin Voisin (Fus), Stefan Crepon (Louis), Édouard Sulpice (Jérémy)

Venezia 2024 – Best Actor (Vincent Lindon), ImpACT Award (Muriel Coulin, Delphine Coulin), Leoncino d'Oro Agiscuola UNICEF Award (Muriel Coulin, Delphine Coulin)

 

For the close-knit and loving French family at the center of directors Delphine and Muriel Coulin’s intensely intimate new drama, home is where the heart is, and politics are probably best left at the doorstep. Unfortunately, the opposite winds up happening to hardworking single dad Pierre (Vincent Lindon) when his oldest son, Fus (Benjamin Voisin), veers far to the right, joining a band of radical thugs committing violent acts around the neighborhood.

Coulins’ gripping and well-performed fourth feature is adapted from the 2020 novel by Laurent Petitmangin. Following the surge of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party in recent French elections, The Quiet Son couldn’t be a more timely effort. Lindon has played working-class characters many times before in his long career, most recently in films like At War and The Measure of a Man and he fits naturally into the role of Pierre, who works nights so he can raise his sons in the daytime, but inevitably finds one of them pulling away from him. Voisin, who gave a breakout performance in the 2021 Balzac adaptation Lost Illusions, incarnates Fus’ many contradictions with explosive restraint.