Coward

The easy pun would be to say that Coward is a brave movie about homosexuality in wartime. The obvious comparison would be to pit Lukas Dhont's Great War flick against Los Javis' La bola negra, the latter set in the Spanish Civil War, as both deal with the same main topic. Coincidentally, both also happen to be heavily based on the world of theatre, so it was the easy showdown many of us draw between the two competing movies at the Festival de Cannes. But the main difference is quite clear: Coward is a simpler, more direct tale that prefers the focus, cadence, and impact of the story beats of a single, well-defined arc, over the poetical sophistication of the other film's three intertwined narratives.

As such, Coward also comes across as a well paced movie, much easier and enjoyable to watch, where there's no filler or complex pretensions. That being said, I felt that, as my only gripe with its whole structure, instead of ending on a high note, the film dilutes towards the end, when it had already given you its best moments.

Coward movie review at Gamereactor.

An interesting contextual ingredient here is that we're not talking about the late 30s or the 40s as is the case most of the time elsewhere. This is the Great War, as we follow a group of supporting Belgian soldiers on the front line. To frame a coming-out story a couple of decades earlier in the century feels fresh and almost never-told. And the fact that they provide support (carry ammo, retrieve wounded or dead bodies, serve as backups, feed prisoners... or pee in their soup) also makes this quite a different war movie.

To me, though, the more powerful moments weren't necessarily tied to the growing romance between Emmanuel Macchia's Pierre and Valentin Campagne's Francis. The film managed to move me a tad more when the bigger group of young lads sing together as a way to power up themselves before the horrors. The film starts with one of these songs right away, and Dhont deliberately hits you a couple of times later with this core device, showing mastery at it with the close shots among the crowds. And besides the guys' chants, there's a memorable theatre song with the bombs falling as background music.

In fact, Coward is a beautiful film to watch through and through. I appreciate its smart use of colours, betting on warmer tones and oranges to emphasise the human connections but always in a subtle way, while it also delivers colder, impactful trench sequences.

Another interesting fact is how the actors and their characters evolve during the film in several ways. It would seem that Macchia's Pierre, "tall rookie" Pierre, is and will be our almost-silent protagonist here, as he discovers his sexuality, his cowardice, and braveness in different situations. However, Campagne's Francis grows more and more in presence and importance, from a clear statement of purpose at first, to eating up his colleague's part and becoming the real protagonist here, blurring the lines of who's got the main role. His character starts confident, forward, as the counter-weight to Pierre's hesitation, but without spoiling the twists, let's say it also becomes more prudent and reasonable with time. There's a bit of Quixote & Sancho play here that to me stood out clearly.

Those techniques work well because because the writing is good, with careful dialogue making all characters even more believable, but also thanks to the aforementioned pacing and, above all, to the outstanding performances by these two actors. The cowardice/bravery topic duality is explored from different angles, and let's say that Pierre's treason moment and Francis's tense mime sequence will stay with me for a long time.

"We're dancing while they're dying"

However, despite all the freshness and finesse shown most of the time, the weaker final third and the predictable storyline with little to no surprise or re-igniting twists (something ironically opposite to the theatre these soldiers use as escapism), make the whole of Coward feel weaker than some of its fantastic parts. "Frou frou".

The only two official screenshots are precisely dedicated to the songs, be it soldier chants (left) or theatrical play (right).