Piche: Between Heaven and Earth (Sylvain Archbault, 2010): Canada

Reviewed by Stacie Manifold.  Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2011.

This screening was the US premiere for Sylvain Archambault’s Piche: Between Heaven and Earth. The film is the second feature from Archambault, who directed Pour toujours, les Canadiens! in 2009 as well.  Two actors play the main character role; Michel Côté plays Robert Piche aged 41-48 and Maxime Le Flaguais plays Piche as a young man.

The movie starts off with a shot filmed almost from the tip of the nose of an airplane.  All you see around you are clouds as you fly forward.  Then quickly you take a sharp nose-dive through the clouds and are falling towards the ocean.  It turns out this is a dream in Robert’s mind as he jerks awake.  The camera angles are from abnormal views and change quickly in the opening scene where we first meet Piche.  Sounds are heightend as he goes about shaving and dressing.  It’s finally revealed that he is in a rehabilitaion facility.

The film is shot in an intersting way that really keeps your attention.  You are constantly jumping back and forth from the present to the past and each sequence reveals a little more about the characters.  Piche currently is dealing with alcohol addiction and trying to re-unite with his family.  Each blast to the past reveals a little more about what got him to that place.

The main plot of the film is that Piche is an airplane pilot.  He finds out mid-flight that the plane he is flying has run out of fuel.  He successfully navigates and lands the plane safely, saving the lives of all the passengers on board.  This effort makes him a hero to all involved.

Some very poignant statements were made by this film about self-worth and character.  Although Piche is held as a hero by those around him, the film takes a deeper look into how he feels about himself and takes us back into his past where he made some not so great decisions and fell on rough times.  Things that are still affecting him deeply.  It shows us his journey to becoming such a capable pilot.  I think the main message of the film is that although you may be a hero through someone else’s eyes, you are not truly happy until you find inner peace with yourself.