Coward is a tender, beautiful little film about finding safety in the arms of another person in a world that is destined to hurt you.
It features two tremendous performances from Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne as leading men, Pierre and Francis, respectively, with quietly devastating direction from young master Lukas Dhont, who has an innate understanding of intimacy. At two hours in length, it's a tad longer than it needs to be, but its delights outweigh the stumbles.
Set during the First World War, Coward tells the story of Pierre (Macchia), a young man who arrives at the Belgian front among others as replacements for the endless grinder. There, he meets Francis (Campagne), one of "the rejects", a group of men unfit for traditional service, who perform theater pieces to entertain others both at the front and in military hospitals.
At first, Pierre is reticent, clumsy, but curious. Francis has no such qualms and is immediately drawn to the new arrival. They exchange quick banter, discover a quiet intimacy, and, ultimately, love, which arrives as naturally as breathing. Around them, the most horrific events of the 1900s take place. Yet when they're together, the world makes sense, at least a little bit.
Despite its main narrative, Coward smartly and with great care sidesteps the conventional pitfalls of this type of story. There are no cheap twists of unrequited love or the one hateful soldier who just has it out for the queers. Instead, writer/director Dhont understands that in war, it ultimately doesn't matter. Nobody checks the sexual orientation of those in mass graves.
If there is hesitation or awkwardness, it's because both men lack the vocabulary to express every emotion roaring through them. In one beautiful moment, as they lie in bed together, both confess they don't know what to do next. It is playful, tender, honest, and moving, just like the rest of the film.
Coward is not a war film, yet it's not quite a straightforward love story either. It has the same hopeful optimism as one of my favorite films of all time, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement, which also searched for humanity in the desolation of war. At all times, Dhont keeps us aware of the great events that surround our protagonists, yet, beyond a few intense sequences in the trenches, he doesn't need the spectacle for us to understand the gravity of things.
Likewise, this is a film that can discuss matters of gender, masculinity, and how our society rewards inhumanity when gentleness makes far more sense, and never feels preachy about it. Dhont is a smartly economical filmmaker who knows when to exit a scene. Some things have more power when left unspoken.
Watch, for example, how much Dhont tells us in the scene where Francis and Pierre go to put on a show for a military hospital. The Rejects are all relatively healthy, and they put on a good performance, but as the camera follows them as they circle around the room, see how the men in different states of brokenness react to the loud noises and jubilation. Later, far from the ward, Dhont reminds us that even those who returned home left something vital of themselves in the trenches.
It takes great skill to make a film about war, and even greater to combine war with love, societal outcasts, and tragedy in a way that doesn't feel exploitative or maudlin. The fact that Dhont accomplishes all of these and still finds a way to be funny and uplifting feels like a miracle. Coward is a moving and inspiring film against all odds.
