May Days: Baier’s Broad Commentary on a Revolutionary Footnote
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people,” said Eleanor Roosevelt. Dipping its irreverent toes into each of these camps is The Safe House, the latest film from Swiss director Lionel Baier, adapted from the novel by Christophe Boltanski. And Baier most assuredly wants the audience to recognize the origins of the source material, with narration often breaking the fourth wall to remind us we are watching the reenactment of a publication, arguably docu-fiction, which presents a curious event which transpired at the home of a quirky artistic family during the civil unrest of May, 1968.… Read the rest
