"La France": What's French for half-baked?

In the late 1940s, film critic James Agee thought he'd seen just about everything when he reviewed "Bill and Coo," an hourlong film featuring a cast made up of trained birds, most of them wearing hats and neckties.

"By conservative estimate," he called it "the goddamndest thing ever seen."

A new World War I drama, "La France," may give "Bill and Coo" a run for its money. About half an hour into this earnest, sketchy tale of a teenage cross-dresser hanging out with French soldiers in 1917, the troops unexpectedly burst into song.

They sing from the viewpoint of a blind girl, the lyrics echoing their new companion's androgynous nature. They jam the lyrics together to fill out a line, and they don't seem to have rehearsed with their instruments (where did the accordion and banjo come from?). The result plays a lot like a number lifted from an especially surreal Hollywood musical.

Sylvie Testud, who was Paul Rudd's co-star in 2002's "The Chateau," plays the stubborn Camille, who joins the soldiers in order to track down her husband. He's sent her a letter warning her not to try to find him; she's determined to solve the mystery of his disappearance.

While she encourages the soldiers to believe she's a boy, they initially want no part of her. A lieutenant (Pascal Greggory) shoots her in the hand to scare her off, and inevitably she's suspected of being a spy.

"La France" never quite convinces us that Camille could pass for a male. She straps down her breasts and talks tough, but when she suddenly kisses a man, the moment is not as startling as it was clearly meant to be. It's a tradition carried over from the stage, where distance and makeup can make sexual confusion easier to carry off.

The young director, Serge Bozon, won a Jean Vigo award for best first feature film for "La France." Visually the movie has a freshness that's emphasized in the first scene and continues to impress. The lush forest scenes are like nothing in any previous World War I movie.

Still, you might want to file this one under Novelties and Cult Items, Not Completely Baked.

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com