Icarus Films Adds DVD Editions Of A Quest For Meaning And Hippocrates: Diary Of A French Doctor To Its Jan. 15 Release Calendar

News arrived this past week that Icarus Films will be quick to expand its January of 2019 home entertainment release slate with the arrival of two additional DVD releases on Jan. 15.   

Icarus Film will be teaming with both Bullfrog Films for the debut of French documentary filmmakers by Nathanaël Coste and Marc de la Ménardière’s globetrotting odyssey, A Quest for Meaning, and Frances elite Distrib Films for director Thomas Lilti’s Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor.   They will be joining last week’s Jan. 8 first-of-the-New Year DVD product offerings from Icarus Films and Bullfrog Films, documentary filmmaker John Feldman’s Symbiotic Earth, an intimate look at the life and theories of evolutionary theories of the late Professor Lynn Margulis.

There is hope when you see that young professionals from other cultures — in this case, France — are struck by how destructive the digital world and 24/7 connectivity has become.   It’s an addiction; an itch you can quite seem to scratch … a form of societal anxiety.

This is what childhood friends, Nathanaël Coste (who serves as narrator) and Marc de la Ménardière (who does most of the camera work), have come to recognize and take to the road in search of, if not answers, at least a better understanding of why their career paths are not fulfilling.  

Their film breaks down into four elements.  The first is the recognition that there is a problem with the social bond … anxiety and disconnection; an alienation brought on, ironically, by an over-connected world.   Too much … a uneasy feeling that simple might be better.

Once Nathanaël and Marc outline their concerns, the second element emerges, a look at the globalist structure of competition.   There are no easy answers, just a sense that something is very wrong.

Next is the unique French concept expressed by the filmmakers in their travels, “Altermondialisme,” which has mutated into the English language term, Alter-globalization.   Generally speaking, globalism has become a runaway train … slowdown, keep the good aspects, but the ecology and human values need to be recognized. 

And finally, the fourth element of A Quest for Meaning is a call to reconnect to the earth around us … to once again respect the environment and a return to the basics.

Filmmakers Nathanaël Coste and Marc de la Ménardière take to the road to explore these questions … Europe, India and South America are stops along their quest.   They may not have the answers, but they do recognize the problem — that itch that the collective “we” can’t seem to scratch — and raise issues that are worthy of discussion.   A Quest for Meaning is a road trip on DVD that is well worth taking.

A Quest for Meaning is presented in French with English and includes English subtitles where necessary.   Included with the documentary is the short film titled Ego Not Bad, which focuses on author and philosopher Arnaud Desjardins.

Also making its domestic DVD debut on Jan. 15 is French filmmaker Thomas Lilti’s 2014 César Awards Best Picture nominee (seven total nominations, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Director, plus a win for Best Supporting Actor, Reda Kateb), Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor.

Lilti’s film made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014, worked the international film festival circuit and had a brief arthouse run domestically in 2015 … and then disappeared.    

The distribution arrangement that Icarus Films has with France’s Distrib Films finally brings Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor to the domestic home entertainment marketplace … long overdue.

Benjamin (Vincent Lacoste — three-time César Awards acting nominee: Victoria, Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor and The French Kissers) is to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor.   We pick up his story as intern at Hôpital Rothschild in Paris, where his father is one of the high-ranking physicians … he has a leg-up, so to speak.  

But things head south when he bungles the diagnosis of a patient’s stomach pains — a decision to forego an EKG examine — and death ensues.   It’s not that cut and dried for Benjamin, as the patient had a history of being in and out of the hospital on a regular (chronic alcoholism) and resources were stretched thin (equipment issues).   

The powers that be unite to cover up for him, which sets in motion a series of events featuring the patient’s ex-wife (played by Julie Brochen) and Benjamin’s need to step up his game — which, in fact, he may not be capable of.    The inner-workings of the hospital (that stuff behind the curtain) are explored in connection with this “dramatic event” and the plight of a far superior “intern,” Abdel (Reda Kateb), who is actually an Algerian doctor, but is relegated to grunt work because of being French, but not being really French.

Filmmaker Thomas Lilti, a former physician himself, brings a sense of realism to the proceedings that makes Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor more than just a dramatic tale, but something of an indictment of the current state of France’s medical care environment.