FilmCriticLalitRao Everybody knows that unusual ideas are always welcomed in cinema.This is an observation which holds for French director Robin Campillo's film "Les Revenants"/"They came back".This is a socially relevant French film about old people who are given a new lease of life.Although this film talks about dead people,it cannot be classified as a zombie film. France is an economically strong European nation which is thinking hard about its old people."Les Revenants" is a socially relevant film which goads us to reflect on the plight of old people.It is not only France which has to think about aging population.Many economically developed nations would soon have large population of old people.It is for them to device strategies to make life worthwhile for their old age denizens. This is why "Les Revenants" is more a film about French society and its handling of issues related to old people's welfare and well being.Film director Robin Campillo and his screenwriter Brigitte Tijou have written a gripping scenario which continually asks what is to be done with dead people who have come to live with living people.This exceptionally sound narrative gives rise to a series of poignant observations about old people and their behavioral traits with surprisingly uncommon results.PS :Film critic Lalit Rao would like to thank a good friend Mr.Philippe Pham for having gifted a DVD of this film for detailed analysis.

fedor8 I suppose it was about time someone approached the whole "living dead" shtick from a different angle, i.e. from a non-cannibalistic, non-flesh-ripping, non-moaning-and- walking-slowly-while-longing- for-fresh-live-human-flesh perspective.While "Les Revenants" doesn't tackle the subject stupidly, I do fell as if they hadn't gone far enough, as if they'd not gone much further than scratching the surface. There is mention of the financing, the pensions, old jobs, fear, re-introduction to society and all that, but I felt there was so much more that could have been included. In fact, a TV series should have been made out of this (were it not for the simple fact that nearly all TV series turn out crap), simply due to the large scope of interesting dilemmas and questions that the premise offers.The realism was somewhat lacking at the outset, as regards how the world reacted to the dead coming back to life. There would have been massive panic, plenty of chaos, emotions would have run high all across the board. Not in this movie. Here the living seemed to react with as much apathy as the dead reacted to having been risen. Everyone looks downbeat and morose, like in some daft Bergman drama. So yes, this movie's Euro-roots are showing. You'd expect scenes of people who have recently departed relatives and friends to rush to morgues and "zombie camps" – but no. The zombies walk around as if not too happy they'd been brought back to life, while the living watch the processions of zombies with almost as little emotion. This, of course, makes no sense whatsoever. Even an annual city parade evokes far more emotion. Even a game of bingo in a retirement home evokes more reactions, fcrissakes. But I guess the director was so focused on making a serious zombie film, a "zombie drama" if you will, that he subdued the emotionalism. He overdid it. This is the one aspect of the movie where the writer miscalculated when it came to human behaviour and the psychological impact of such a staggering event.The zombies are even described as "full of energy, always wanting to move about", which is kind of ironic since they looked so sleepy and disinterested.Interestingly enough, the director chose not to delve into the question of why it happened. Perhaps because if he had done so he would have had to go down the obvious route of admitting that such an event could only have been sponsored by a divine being, i.e. the Bearded One. Furthermore, if God existed and suddenly raised the dead, that could only mean that it was some kind of test for mankind. (The Bible is full of God's endless testing of his luckless human subjects/guinea-pigs.) Maybe the director wanted to avoid the whole religious aspect of it which is why no explanation was given for the bizarre occurrence.I guess if anyone truly insisted on an explanation of why God had risen 70 million dead, one could always use the tried-and-true, self-serving, all-purpose explanation, a perennial favourite: "He moves in mysterious ways".But what I really sorely missed in TCB was not an explanation. I missed seeing Geraldine Pailhas's breasts. The director teases the (male) viewer time and time again, but always only from behind, in the dark or showing too little. In the end we don't get to see them at all. So Geraldine's breasts are much like the premise here; a lot of teasing but in the end nothing. Still, an interesting movie.

Boloxxxi There are 2 questions that frustrated me with this movie but I'm not going to tell you what they are because it might spoil it for you and they may not ever occur or matter to you. That said, it was an interesting movie conceptually.As you well know, the dead returning in movies is nothing new. But the approach in Revenants is uncommon in that it does not use a lot of special effects or make up. Hopefully this bit of news will not turn you off if you love effects (as I do), but instead, will intrigue you into checking it out. The principal focus of the movie is how to re-integrate the "dearly returned" back into society and the effect on family and friends. Give this some thought. Who knows, a similar situation may occur in real life one day (heh! heh! heh!).Despite my 2 unanswered questions, the idea and focus of the movie was intriguing enough to keep me interested from beginning to end. Ironically, in it's simplistic delivery (not exploring this captivating idea in more depth; my 2 questions included) it is also clever -I think- in that it does MORE with LESS. For example, in this movie the undead are subtly creepy rather than outright frightening or threatening like most movies of this genre. They don't make you want to run away, just "a little uneasy".Bottom line folks, is that Les Revenants is worth seeing even if 2 or 3 questions nag at you. I give it 6 stars out of 10 for an "above average". And now it's time for ME to depart -UNTIL I RETURN, of course. Love, Boloxxxi.

brian S. Umh, I know they embalm you when you die.. But, was this fact ever addressed in the movie? I was hoping to hear someone say: "Wow, isn't it remarkable that you can die and then be embalmed and then "awake" to be alive again?" This movie could have been written by a 9 year old.. How dumb.. Please, to the person who wrote and directed this piece of junk, what were you thinking? also, why were there no meaning of life questions that were addressed? For example, "what happens when you die?" "Is there an afterlife?" This movie could have been so much more.. But that would have required some intelligence and a small amount of imagination> I give it one star (out of 4)...