See You Up There (in French Au revoir là-haut) is a 2017 French film directed by and starring Albert Dupontel. It is based on The Great Swindle, a 2013 novel by Pierre Lemaitre. It also stars Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Laurent Lafitte, Niels Arestrup and Émilie Dequenne.
In 1920, Albert Maillard (Dupontel) is arrested in Morocco. He is interrogated by the police, so he tells his story, which started on the battlefields of World War I in November 1918, when he met Édouard Péricourt, an eccentric artist. Just a few days before the November 11 armistice, Édouard saved Albert's life, but he was disfigured in the process.
See You Up There provides examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation: The book is nearly 600 pages, and the movie doesn't reach two hours in length, so this is expected. Most of the plot is streamlined for the sake of runtime.
- Bittersweet Ending: Édouard kills himself, unable to bear the pain from the injuries sustained in the war, but he dies with the knowledge his father has accepted him. Albert in the present is let go by the gendarme, and he has Louise and Pauline by his side, as well as a suitcase full of money.
- Buried Alive:
- During the battle, Albert falls into a hole which is filling up with soil. He is nearly choked to death, but Édouard saves him.
- In an ironic echo, Aulnay-Pradelle falls down a ditch when Albert confronts him in a construction site and is buried alive in sand.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- Louise does not seem to be an important character at first: she is just a girl who distributes newspapers. Then she becomes friends with Albert and Édouard and serves as an interpreter for the latter. She's later Happily Adopted by Albert.
- The young soldier killed by Aulnay-Pradelle at the beginning of the movie turns out to be the son of the gendarme interrogating Albert in the present.
- Con Man:
- After the war, Albert and Édouard set up a scheme to get a lot of money: they sell war memorials, get paid, but never build them.
- Aulnay-Pradelle also sets up a shady business: he traffics in the corpses and coffins of the war victims.
- Death Faked for You: When he realizes that he is disfigured, Édouard asks Albert to give him a fake identity. Albert exchanges his identity with the one of a dead soldier. So Édouard is officially declared dead.
- Driven to Suicide: After making it up with his father, Édouard jumps from a balcony and kills himself.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Louise has her long hair cut into a bob once Édouard and her move into the hotel Lutecia.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Before the war, Albert was an accountant. After the war, he cannot return to his position, so he has to work as a lift attendant in a department store, then as a human billboard.
- Facial Horror: Édouard's face is gruesomely disfigured by a bomb. He has to wear masks to hide his face.
- The Film of the Book: The film is adapted from The Great Swindle, a 2013 novel by Pierre Lemaitre.
- Framing Device: Albert is interrogated by the police in 1920. He tells his story, which starts in November 1918.
- He Knows Too Much: During the battle, Albert realizes that Aulnay-Pradelle shot two French soldiers in the back. So Aulnay-Pradelle tries to kill him.
- Homoerotic Subtext: After the war, Albert and Édouard live together in an attic. A young girl, Louise, hangs about with them. In one scene, Édouard disguises himself as a woman, Albert poses as his husband and Louise as their child.
- How We Got Here: The story starts in 1920 when Albert is arrested. Then the bulk of the movie is a flashback that tells his story from November 1918.
- In the Back: How Aulnay-Pradelle triggers a showdown just a few days before the armistice: he sends two soldiers to the German lines, then shoots them in the back. The French think that the Germans killed them, so they retaliate.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Marcel Péricourt is an ambitious and powerful politician. His son Édouard is an eccentric artist. They often have quarrels, until Édouard leaves home to fight in World War I.
- Masking the Deformity: Édouard's wears masks because hie face was gruesomely disfigured by a bomb.
- The Neidermeyer: Lieutenant Aulnay-Pradelle. He triggers a showdown just a few days before the armistice by shooting his own men in the back. The soldiers hate him and fear him more than the Germans.
- Riches to Rags: Édouard is born in a very rich and powerful family. He decides to become a private soldier. After the war, he does not want to meet his family any more and he lives in an attic in a poor neighbourhood with Albert.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Both Albert and Édouard suffer from the trauma of the war. Albert is traumatized because he was nearly choked to death in a hole. Édouard is disfigured.
- Translator Buddy: Louise serves as an interpreter for Édouard, who cannot speak clearly because his face has been mutilated during the war.
