“The doctor is in, but he’s neither motivated, competent nor altogether sober…” says The Hollywood Reporter of this clever little flick, which is definitely no visit to Shortland Street on a Monday evening in May.
HIPPOCRATES: THE DIARY OF A FRENCH DOCTOR is a rather darkly comic, at times sad and most definitely socially potent portrait of a Paris hospital, as seen through the eyes of a young intern making his very first rounds. But what’s fascinating about its treatment is the way director Thomas Lilti has Benjamin deliver the lines directly to the camera, almost docu-fiction style. It’s as if Benjamin is talking directly to us, the audience, trying to convince us that he has what it takes to make it in this high stakes profession, saving lives all along the way.
“The doctor is in, but he’s neither motivated, competent nor altogether sober…” says The Hollywood Reporter of this clever little flick, which is definitely no visit to Shortland Street on a Monday evening in May.
HIPPOCRATES: THE DIARY OF A FRENCH DOCTOR is a rather darkly comic, at times sad and most definitely socially potent portrait of a Paris hospital, as seen through the eyes of a young intern making his very first rounds. But what’s fascinating about its treatment is the way director Thomas Lilti has Benjamin deliver the lines directly to the camera, almost docu-fiction style. It’s as if Benjamin is talking directly to us, the audience, trying to convince us that he has what it takes to make it in this high stakes profession, saving lives all along the way.
Benjamin(played well by Vincent Lacoste) is young, more than a bit cocky, and definitely hoping to impress as he begins his first shift at the hospital. He is going to become a great doctor, he is absolutely sure of it from the get go. But his first experience as junior doctor/intern in his highly esteemed father, the Professor Barois’s ward does not turn out quite the way he hoped it would. Slightly shaky when it comes to the nuts and bolts of actual procedures, but clearly buoyed by high self esteem, young Benjamin learns the ropes the hard way, caring for elderly patients on their last legs by day while partying with the other interns by night. Unsurprisingly his education soon takes a dark turn when an alcoholic patient (Thierry Levaret) dies on his watch, mostly due to his own incompetence. Major wake up call and cue a whole lot of soul searching, which when it comes is quite pronounced.
It’s not all bleak though, and the moments of bleakness that are present are lightened by the supporting characters and their super authentic approach to life working within the health system.The problems at the hospital – and naturally there are plenty - all point to a larger systemic problem that appears to be a common situation all over the world. These people are human and they feel like humans, a fact we often have to be reminded of. In one scene after deciding not to run an ECG, one of the nurses looks up at the episode of House M.D. playing in the background and jokes, “borrow their ECG.” It’s not about apathy, it’s about an inability to act due to all manner of bureaucratic and budgetary issues. They’re normal people, doing a bloody tough job. Bad practices just aren’t questioned anymore, until a pair of new doctors, shocked and horrified by a particularly bleak first week, aim to challenge the status quo.
So HIPPOCRATES: THE DIARY OF A FRENCH DOCTOR is great watch, and comes highly recommended. For me it really pushes home the age-old adage “do no harm” (where the film gets its namesake), and how hard that is for so many in the health system all over the world.
It’s interesting to note that writer-director M.D. himself Thomas Lilti is an M.D. himself, and that many scenes were shot in the hospital where Lilti himself once worked. Realism like that just ain’t possible to fake.