Es ist schändlich, wie staatliche Mediziner*innen und entsprechendes Pflegepersonal behandelt und entlohnt werden. Alltäglich geben sie alles dafür, den Menschen zu helfen und werden leider nicht selten dafür von Patienten unangemessen behandelt, wenn nicht sogar bedroht. IN DEN BESTEN HÄNDEN gibt uns einen Einblick in diese Erlebnisse und zeigt sie uns anlässlich eines fiktiven Falls, der als eigentliche Hauptgeschichte etabliert wird. Grundsätzlich ist dies ein hervorragender Ansatz, denn tatsächlich muss den Menschen einmal vor Augen geführt werden, wie egoistisch und niederträchtig sie sich teilweise verhalten. Dieser Denkzettel kommt jedoch ein wenig zu kurz, da letztlich der medizinische Alltag immer nur eine Nebengeschichte bleibt, während alles rund um die Hauptfiguren eigentlich vollkommen belanglos und überflüssig (bis auf die Vorgabe der roten Linie, um nicht als Dokumentation durchzugehen) ist. Nichtsdestotrotz sehen wir ein mitreißendes Werk, welches es durchaus einmal auf die Watchlist schaffen kann.

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In den besten Händen ©2022 Alamode Film

In den besten Händen ©2022 Alamode Film

On average, there are always 1,900 to 2,500 hospitals in Germany, which are operated in a very mixed way. At the beginning of the 1990s, most of these medical facilities were state-owned and supported mainly by non-profit hospitals. Since then, however, more and more of the operations have been privatised, so that in 2019 we could record just under 38% of all enterprises in private hands and just 29% were in public hands. The big problem with this is that private hospitals are relying on far fewer beds and therefore there is a massive reduction in care options. In France, too, massive savings are being made, which repeatedly leads to hospitals quickly reaching their capacity limits and overcrowding. Yet the situation here is exactly the opposite, and only about a quarter of all facilities are privatised. Nevertheless, in terms of medical technology and staffing, many similarities with the German health system are recognisable.

Director Catherine Corsini has already devoted herself several times to comprehensive historical themes and, for example, referred to the sexual revolution in her hit film LA BELLE SAISON. Now, however, she wanted to devote herself to a current topic for once and create a study on the so-called Yellow Vests movement, which flared up for the first time in November 2018. While working on it, however, she also became increasingly aware of other problem areas in French social policy, and a hospital stay of her own ensured that she wanted to get closer to the conditions in French hospitals. For a realistic portrayal of her vision, she relies on both professional actresses and a team of lay actors from the health sector. Lead actress Marina Foïs has already shown her talent for comedy roles in A POOL OF MEN as well as several other successful films. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, on the other hand, is better known for drama and recently presented her latest film role in LA LIGNE at the 72nd Berlinale.

What it’s about

Once again, devastating demonstrations by the yellow waistcoats take place in Paris, rebelling against Macron’s tax policies and demanding more social justice. Violent riots and massive radicalisation have found their way into the protests, which is why these escalations have been strongly disapproved of by the French police. In the clashes, there are inevitably injuries and a consequent overloading of the health system. Raf, who is currently having massive relationship problems with her partner Julie and wants to prevent a break-up, falls down in her desperate ecstasy and seriously injures her arm. Admission to the nearest hospital is unavoidable, but there she experiences the terrible conditions that doctors and nurses have to deal with every day. Her own recovery becomes more and more out of focus for the otherwise rather self-absorbed comic artist.

Review

LA FRACTURE wants to be a lot of things at once, and in the end is nothing really in its entirety. On the one hand, Catherine Corsini wants to develop the drama around a romance of a homosexual partnership that is toxically charged and on the verge of final failure. On the other hand, she devotes herself intensively to the problems in the health system and also wants to take a look at the protests in France – it’s just too much. She tries to throw all these themes into one big pot and stir them vigorously to create a big mash of social criticism and romantic drama, but in the end she doesn’t manage to be clear enough in her message and present a clear statement, except to say casually: everything sucks.

In den besten Händen ©2022 Alamode Film

Nevertheless, the approach is really well done and even makes sense, because reporting on the conditions in hospitals is absolutely necessary to make people aware of how the problems much cited in the media play out in reality. But this in turn could have led to a very dry and unattractive documentary. However, by establishing a personal story as a guide and keeping those very perceptions close to the story, Corsini gives us a clear thread that vividly shows us the effects of austerity policies. This is made all the more realistic by the fact that the carers are in fact mostly from the industry and do not work strictly according to a script, but let their own experiences flow into it. Nevertheless, the basic red thread often still seems too dominant, sacrificing critical examination time to dramaturgical feature film time. The relationship is therefore only partially right.

Real insanity

In a conversation with a German nurse who herself works in the emergency room, it became clear how frighteningly realistic LA FRACTURE really is. In addition, I learned that this film often remains quite harmless in its presentation and that in reality things are sometimes even more crude and the working conditions are an almost insurmountable problem, especially in the case of exceptional situations, as the Corona pandemic has just shown. The complete overloading of staff is a problem that is increasingly being heard in this country, but still does not receive the appropriate appreciation that would be necessary. One of the reasons for this is that the explosive consequences of such overwork are often not perceived externally and staff often prevent a collapse by working unplanned, sometimes massive overtime.

In den besten Händen ©2022 Alamode Film

Although the camera is mainly directed at the protagonist couple, it often wanders to the nursing staff and really disregards its own main characters. This is a good thing, because Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s constant shouting and the character’s annoying and egotistical manner quickly become unbearable and make us feel how terrible it must be to be confronted again and again with such exhausting characters in the normal course of everyday work. Nevertheless, this often makes the narrative a bit muddled, and it is unclear where Corsini wants the story to go at all.

In den besten Händen ©2022 Alamode Film

At the end of despair

The director and scriptwriter works out another very exciting aspect with the view of the destitution of her characters. Embodied by Pio Marmaï, we experience a no less nerve-racking man who is on the verge of financial despair and can barely finance his life through his job as a professional driver. However, he himself also stands up for the values of the yellow waistcoat movement, because instead of surviving he also wants to live. An accident, however, shakes up this system for him, and he faces a total depression that limits his options for action to a minimum. In fact, the story around the character Yann Caron is a very exciting one, as it is the case for very many people around the world that an injury and the associated loss of work is not affordable, and health thus becomes an unattractive counterweight to destitution. Consequently, this critique of the system actually deserves its own and independent film, because here the outlook comes up short.

Conclusion

Basically, Catherine Corsini thus develops a wonderful little film that both captivates with its charming humour and provocatively draws attention to the problems of France and other countries. In doing so, she tries to break away from the superficial social opinion regarding tax criticism and health criticism and simply create a realistic picture that opens the eyes of the population for once. All of this works really great, if it weren’t for the drama attached to the two protagonists, which always casts an unattractive shadow over the plot and basically only exists to establish a guiding thread, but at the same time is also blown up far too big in its irrelevant plot and finally even finds a conclusion with the glorification of a theft of hospital property. With a little more astuteness, it would have been possible to get much more out of LA FRACTURE.

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Originaltitel	La fracture
Kinostart	21.04.2022
Länge	ca. 98 Minuten
Produktionsland	Frankreich
Genre	Komödie | Drama
Verleih	Alamode Film
FSK	FSK 12 ©FSK

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