Fille de brest (la) - dvd DVD – 4 April 2017

“150 Milligrams” is the English title of a French contemporary drama based on a true story; the story of a female doctor at a provincial hospital who dared to go up against two large institutions: a private medical corporation and the official French medical board – and she won! Here is some basic information about this drama which premiered in 2016:** Original French title: “La fille de Brest”** Director: Emmanuelle Bercot** Writers: Emmanuelle Bercot and Séverine Bosschem** Based on Irène Frachon’s book “Mediator 150 MG” (2010)** Original soundtrack: French** Run time: 127 minutesThe cast includes the following:** Sidse Babett Knudsen as Irène Frachon (born 1963) – a doctor of medicine (a pulmonologist)** Bonoit Magimel as Antoine Le Bihan – a doctor of medicine** Patrick Ligarde as Bruno Frachon – Irène’s husband** Olivier Pasquier as Arsene Weber – aka “Santa Claus” or "Father Christmas"** Myriam Azencot as Catherine Haynes** Emie Benoiston as Amélie Frachon – daughter** Pauline Mer as Adèle Frachon – daughter** Merlin Apostolo as Samuel Frachon – son** Paolo Le Bodic as Arnaud Frachon – son** Lara Neumann as Anne Jouan – a reporter at Le FigaroSince this drama is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. Therefore I feel free to mention some of them in this review.While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown here. But the basic story is true.Irène Frachon noticed that several patients who died from heart failure in her hospital had been taking a medical product called Mediator. This product was produced by the medical corporation Servier. Mediator was given to patients who had diabetes. The purpose was to help them lose weight.Irène Frachon suspected that there was a connection between Mediator and the heart failure. In other words: the patients were being killed by a product which was supposed to help them. And Servier was making money selling a product which was killing the patients who took it.Working with a few colleagues at the hospital she made an investigation which seemed to prove her suspicion. With the results in her hand she went into action: she wanted Servier to stop producing Mediator and she wanted the medical board to ban the product.At first, she did not succeed. Representatives of Servier rejected her investigation. They regarded her as “a girl from a provincial hospital.” She was not a man and not a specialist from a famous hospital in Paris. She did not count. They did not take her seriously. They did not want to listen to her. The medical board reacted in the same way.But the girl from Brest did not give up. She was dedicated and she was stubborn. She became a whistleblower. She went public with her case. She contacted the media and she wrote a book which was published in 2010. The subtitle of the book was “How many deaths?”The medical corporation Servier did not like the subtitle. They took her publisher to court and they won. Now the publisher chose a new subtitle for the book: “Subtitle censored.”This was a clever move which gave the case even more publicity and finally the establishment had to give in to her crusade: the production of Mediator was stopped and an official inquiry concluded that the medical board had failed to protect the interest of the patients when it had refused to listen to Irène’s warning.What do reviewers say about this contemporary drama? Here are the results of two review aggregators:** 40 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)** 66 per cent = IMDbThe topic is very important, but the ratings are not impressive, as you can see. If you ask me, both ratings are too harsh. On the other hand, I cannot go all the way to the top, because there are some flaws here and there. Let me explain:# 1. The movie is too long. It runs for more than two hours. 100 minutes should be enough to tell this story.# 2. If you do not know anything about the case before watching, it will take a while before you understand what is going on. The introduction does not exactly help the viewer understand.Even if you know the case before watching, it will still take a while before you understand everything, because the introduction is filled with technical language and medical jargon. After the first half hour things get better. Once the introduction is over, the remaining story is easy to follow.# 3. We never see the “eureka” moment when Irène formulates her suspicion; the moment when she realises that Mediator has caused the heart failure of her patients. Why is this significant moment never shown?# 4. We never learn how the investigation is conducted. We see Irène and her colleagues collecting a lot of documents; we see them filling out forms: sometimes they tick a box with “yes” and sometimes they tick a box with “no.” But what does it mean? We never find out how they assemble the evidence that supports the assumption and proves the suspicion. Why not?I like this drama and I want to give it a good rating, because the case is so important - a whistleblower who actually wins – but as you can see, there are some flaws, which cannot be ignored; which cannot be overlooked. I have to remove one star because of these flaws. Therefore I think this drama deserves a rating of four stars (80 per cent).PS # 1. Sidse Babett Knudsen is a Danish actress who speaks French very well. But native speakers will notice that she is not French. In this drama, the movie-makers pretend Irène is half-French and half-Danish. To make the point obvious there is even a scene in which Irène says a line in Danish. I will not tell you what she says.PS # 2. Being a whistleblower can be a lonely and difficult affair. In some cases it can be dangerous. How did Irène manage? How did she survive? First of all, she was dedicated and passionate. In addition, she was lucky that she had a family who supported her: a husband and four children who understood that she had to do what she did.PS # 3. The following items are available online:** Guy Lodge, “Film Review: 150 Milligrams,” Variety, 16 September 2016** Leslie Felperin, “150 Milligrams: Film Review,” The Hollywood Reporter, 26 September 2016PS # 4. I watched this movie with the original French soundtrack and Danish subtitles. It seems the product that is available on Amazon has the French soundtrack and subtitles in French. Why not add subtitles in other languages: English, German and Spanish? This would help the product in the international market.