Declaration of War (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Deleted Scenes Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Palace Films x 4
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	96:10 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Valérie Donzelli
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Valérie Donzelli Jérémie Elkaïm César Desseix Gabriel Elkaïm Brigitte Sy Elina Löwensohn Michèle Moretti Philippe Laudenbach Bastien Bouillon Béatrice De Staël Anne Le Ny
Case	Alpha-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes, constantly
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Juliette (Valerie Donzelli) and Romeo (Jeremie Elkaim) are young Parisians who meet, fall in love and have a baby boy, Adam. Other than sleepless nights with the baby crying, they are happy together. But when Adam is 18 months old they start to worry as he doesn't walk, vomits frequently and has a slightly asymmetrical facial structure. A paediatrician suggests a referral to a neurologist and a CAT scan confirms that Adam has a brain tumour. An operation is arranged which is successful, but Adam needs intensive care. It is then discovered that Adam has a malignant and aggression form of rhabdiod cancer, and is not likely to live beyond his 5th birthday. Juliette and Romeo refuse to give up on their son; as he is required to receive on-going intensive treatment in a sterile ward they sell their apartment and live within the hospital to be near him. This puts an impossible strain upon their relationship and they part. As the film ends, Adam is 8 years old, and seemingly cured.

     Declaration of War (La guerre est declaree) is an audacious film. It is based upon the true life experiences of writer / director Valerie Donzelli, who also plays the mother in the film. The co-writer, Jeremie Elkaim, who plays the father of the boy, was Donzelli’s partner and real life father of her son. So in fact this couple are reliving their experience. Declaration of War is about the reality of parents, and their extended families, dealing with such a terrible experience, the tensions and disagreements, the trials as well as the triumphs, that leave such a toll and ultimately, as in this case, destroyed a loving relationship (although they obvious remain close friends). The purpose of reliving the experience for Donzelli may be cathartic but the film also makes it clear that it is a heart-felt thank you to the doctors, hospitals and clinics and their staff, who helped them during their ordeal.

     Declaration of War is obviously close to Donzelli’s heart, and it might have been easy for her to lose perspective about the material. But it is to her credit that she keeps a tight control upon Declaration of War; it is intense, at times very sad, yet contains scenes of life and humour. Except for a rather silly sequence that has the couple, separated by miles, singing about each other, the film succeeds in providing a real and vital experience of life, bringing in the wider family relationships and not omitting the tensions and disagreements.

     Declaration of War could have been depressing given the subject matter and the fact that the experience was real, but it is in fact a remarkable and life affirming film. It is intense, sad, yet humorous and at the end one is left with the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit. Recommended.

Video

     Declaration of War is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     Shot in HD, Declaration of War has the raw look of independent filmmaking. The colours in some exterior scenes look natural if muted, but some interiors and night shots are very dark, with limited shadow detail. Close-ups have acceptable detail, although skin tones can look quite pale in places. There is a fair bit of ghosting with movement, plus evident noise in places.

     The layer change at 64:14 resulted in a slight pause.

     English subtitles are in a clear white font that are easy to read and seemed to follow the dialogue well. The subtitles kept spelling “tumour” as “tumor”, which to me looks funny but is a US alternative I suppose; otherwise I noticed no spelling or grammatical errors.

     The raw look of the film is in keeping with the subject matter and the way the film was shot.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a French Dolby Digital 5.1 track at 448 Kbps.

     Although the audio is 5.1, and was read as such by my system, for most of the film including the party scene at the beginning, everything, dialogue and music, came from the centre channel. I did check to see if my system was working, and it was. Around the 41 minute mark and during the end titles there was some music in the rears, but otherwise nothing. Occasionally, the front speakers gave the music a stereo output, and the sub-woofer did support some music occasionally. Dialogue was clear and centred.

     Lip synchronisation is fine.

     The film used classical music, including Vivaldi, Offenbach and J.S. Bach and also music from French film composer Georges Delerue. It was an effective support for the film.

     For most of the film this felt like a 2.0 mix. As this was not an action film, and dialogue was clear, it was not really a problem. It was really only noticeable during the couple of party scenes, when some music and crowd noise in the rears might have been expected.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Deleted Scenes (9:16)

     Nine deleted sequences of varying length. A title card gives the sequence number so we have some idea where each fitted into the film. Some are quite interesting, for example, extra scenes of the couple moving through the medical hierarchy.

Theatrical Trailer (1:19)

More From Palace Films

     Trailers for Goodbye First Love (1:53), The Women on the 6th Floor (2:10), King of Devil’s Island (2:18) and Love Like Poison (2:11).

     There is currently no Region 1 US or Region 2 UK listing for Declaration of War. The Region 2 French and Region 2 Spanish releases have no English subtitles.

     Declaration of War is an audacious film. It could have been depressing, but in fact is a remarkable and life affirming film, and at the end one is left with the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit.

     The DVD has acceptable video although the audio has some issues. Deleted scenes and a trailer are the only relevant extras, but no other version of the film is currently available for English speakers.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall