While the trailer of his new film "Mortal Engines" begins to circulate in theaters, another facet of Peter Jackson is offered through a new film. "They shall not grow old" offers a beautiful dive into the life of British soldiers on the war of 14-18.
The project was born in 2014, in the offices of Diane Lees. The director of the Imperial War Museum's National Organisation of British Military Museums entrusted Peter Jackson with the keys to its archives. 600 hours of audio recordings of soldiers' testimonies in the 60s. 2000 pieces of films shot between 14 and 18. Not to mention the 100 hours of archives restored, colorized and put in 3D. A titanic work done by Peter Jackson to shape "Theys hall not grow old".
Immersed in the Great War
Fascinated by the stories of his grandfather, who had participated in the conflict, the director of The Lord of the Rings embarked on the adventure. The goal?To "see war as the soldiers saw it".
"We wanted to make a film to explain what it was like to fight in this war. Not to focus on strategy and military medals. But to talk about the social and human experience of war. We have clichés in mind.And I think people are going to be surprised when they hear what veterans have to say. »
The soundtrack is unreleased. Peter Jackson called on lip-reading experts to decipher the soldiers' words. Actors interpret them. A way to make a hundred-year-old archive human. Working on the realism of the story, the film wants to allow the viewer to get closer to the state of the soldiers.
Humanized archives
"What stands out is that there's a lot of humor. When you see the images of all these places where they are, the spirit of these guys is amazing. It came to think that they had been sent to the slaughterhouse. Yet they themselves found a lot of humor in all this and in their experience of the war. When you think about it, they had no choice. Because we know that whenever human beings are in a situation of high pressure, the only thing left is humor."
The film premiered on October 16 in London and went live on the BBC in November. In France, if it does not have an official release date, it begins to be broadcast in festivals since November 9.
