La fille de Brest (2016)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

150 Milligrams is the English title of a French contemporary drama (based on a true story), which premiered in 2016.

 

It is the story of a female doctor at a provincial hospital who dared to go up against two large institutions: a private medical corporation and the official French medical board – and she won!

 

Here is some basic information about this drama:

 

** Original French title: La fille de Brest

** Director: Emmanuelle Bercot

** Writers: Emmanuelle Bercot and Séverine Bosschem

** Based on Irène Frachon’s book Mediator 150 MG (2010)

** Language: French

** Released on DVD in 2018

** Run time: 127 minutes

 

The cast includes the following:

 

The first group

** Sidse Babett Knudsen as Irène Frachon (born 1963) – a doctor of medicine (a pulmonologist)

** Bonoit Magimel as Antoine Le Bihan – a doctor of medicine

** Patrick Ligarde as Bruno Frachon – Irène’s husband

** Olivier Pasquier as Arsene Weber – aka “Santa Claus” or “Father Christmas”

** Myriam Azencot as Catherine Haynes

 

The second group

** Emie Benoiston as Amélie Frachon – daughter

** Pauline Mer as Adèle Frachon – daughter

** Merlin Apostolo as Samuel Frachon – son

** Paolo Le Bodic as Arnaud Frachon – son

** Lara Neumann as Anne Jouan – a reporter at Le Figaro

 

Since this drama is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. This is why I feel free to mention some of them in this review.

 

While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown here. But the basic story is true.

 

The French doctor Irène Frachon noticed that several patients who died from heart failure in her hospital in Brest had been taking a medical product called Mediator. 

 

This product was produced by the medical corporation Servier. Mediator was given to patients who had diabetes. The purpose was to help them lose weight.

 

Irène Frachon suspected that there was a connection between Mediator and the heart failure.

 

In other words: the patients were being killed by a product which was supposed to help them. And Servier was making money selling a product which was killing the patients who took it.

 

Working with a few colleagues at the hospital she made an investigation which seemed to prove her suspicion. 

 

With the results in her hand, she went into action: she wanted Servier to stop producing Mediator and she wanted the medical board to ban the product.

 

At first, she did not succeed. Representatives of Servier rejected her investigation. They regarded her as “a girl from a provincial hospital.” 

 

She was not a man and not a specialist from a famous hospital in Paris. She did not count. 

 

They did not take her seriously. They did not want to listen to her. The medical board reacted in the same way.

 

According to those who were in power, she was:

 

** not a doctor

** not even a woman

** just a girl who didn’t matter

 

Hence the french title La fille de Brest.

But “the girl from Brest” did not give up. She was dedicated and she was stubborn. She became a whistleblower. 

 

She went public with her case. She contacted the media and she wrote a book which was published in 2010. 

 

The subtitle of the book was:

 

How many deaths?

 

The medical corporation Servier did not like the subtitle. They took her publisher to court and they won. Now the publisher chose a new subtitle for the book:

 

Subtitle censored

 

This was a clever move which gave the case even more publicity and finally the establishment had to give in to her crusade: 

 

The production of Mediator was stopped and an official inquiry concluded that the medical board had failed to protect the interest of the patients when it had refused to listen to Irène’s warning.

 

What do reviewers say about this contemporary drama?

 

Here are the results of two review aggregators:

 

** 57 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)

** 60 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

** 66 percent = IMDb

 

On Amazon there are at the moment more than 60 ratings of this product, 15 with reviews.

 

The average rating is 4.5 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 90 percent.

 

If you ask me, the first two ratings are too low, while the rating on Amazon is a bit too high.

 

I cannot go all the way to the top, because there are some flaws here and there.

 

Let me explain:

 

# 1. The movie is too long. It runs for more than two hours. 100 minutes should be enough to tell this story.

 

# 2. If you do not know anything about the case before watching, it will take a while before you understand what is going on. The introduction does not exactly help the viewer understand.

 

Even if you already know something about the case before watching, it may still take a while before you can understand everything, because the introduction is filled with technical language and medical jargon. After the first half hour things get better. 

 

Once the introduction is over, the remaining story is easy to follow.

 

# 3. We never see the “eureka” moment when Irène formulates her suspicion; the moment when she realises that Mediator has caused the heart failure of her patients. Why is this significant moment never shown?

 

# 4. We never learn how the investigation is conducted. We see Irène and her colleagues collecting a lot of documents; we see them filling out forms: sometimes they tick a box with “yes” and sometimes they tick a box with “no.” 

 

But what does it mean?

 

We never find out how they assemble the evidence that supports the assumption and proves the suspicion. 

 

Why not?

 

I like this drama and I want to give it a good rating, because the case is so important - a whistleblower who actually wins – but as you can see, there are some flaws, which cannot be ignored. I have to remove one star because of these flaws. This is why I think this drama deserves a rating of four stars (80 per cent).

 

PS # 1. Sidse Babett Knudsen is a Danish actress who speaks French very well. But native speakers will notice that she is not French.

 

In order to solve this problem, the movie-makers pretend Irène is half-French and half-Danish. To make the point obvious, there is even a scene where Irène says a line in Danish. But I will not tell you what she says.

 

PS # 2. Being a whistleblower can be a lonely and difficult affair. In some cases, it can be dangerous. How did Irène manage? How did she survive?

 

First of all, she was dedicated and passionate. In addition, she was lucky that she had a family who supported her: a husband and four children who understood that she had to do what she did.

 

PS # 3. The following items are available online:

 

** Guy Lodge, “Film Review: 150 Milligrams,” Variety, 16 September 2016

 

** Leslie Felperin, “150 Milligrams: Film Review,” The Hollywood Reporter, 26 September 2016

 

** Matt Goldberg, “150 Milligrams Review: The Heart of the Case, IFFAM 2016,” Collider, 16 December 2016

 

** 150 Milligrams, film review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Practice

 

PS # 4. I watched this movie with the original French soundtrack and subtitles in Danish.

 

It seems the DVD that is available on Amazon has the original French soundtrack and subtitles in French.

 

Why not add subtitles in other languages: English, German and Spanish? This would help the product in the international market.

 

*****

 

150 MG

A contemporary drama

(2016)

 

*****

Mediator 150 mg:

Combien de morts?

by Irène Frachon

(2010)

 

*****

The French doctor Irène Frachon

(born 1963)

 

*****

Mediator 150 mg

A medical product

Produced by Servier

 

*****