La consultation (2006) User Reviews

Wonderful insight into a French family doctor's daily work

[r-houtepen · 8/10 · 2 December 2006]

Nicolas Philibert's famous documentary 'Etre et Avoir' made us feel an enormous admiration for the competence, care and patience of it's hero, school teacher Mr. Lopez. Now we have 'La Consultation' to make us feel likewise that doctor Luc Perino is a hero in his own unspectacular way. He is generally and genuinely compassionate and he's always interested in the person behind the patient, but he's firm if he thinks the patient is on the wrong track. Hélène de Crecy's quietly paced film (nearly Raymond Depardon-style)suggests a slice out of an ordinary day of patients: a baby with an eating problem; a young woman whose bronchitis ought to make her stop smoking; a young man from North-African descent who feels nervous and can't get a job; a young Asian woman with an unwanted pregnancy but a very tender French boyfriend; another young Asian woman who suffers from chronic fatigue and work stress; a woman with anxiety attacks and a non-talkative unemployed husband; a middle aged woman on a medication shopping spree (with no opposition from doc Perino, whereas he turned away another woman with an apparent drug habit); the mother of the young North-African man (which conversation sheds a whole new light on his condition); an older woman whose main complaint appears to be that she does not feel at home among the other elderly people in her service flat; a very old and dehydrated woman with a bulb on her stomach; a very old man who can communicate only through nodding and is in for morphine. Doctor Perino does what's in his reach and he does it in a way you would wish from every doctor. But during many a conversation you sense a certain despair, which is confirmed by a number of direct addresses tot the camera after a consultation. What can a doctor do in a world with children who never receive breast feeding, high work pressure, unemployment, bad marriages and very fragile older people? Every medical student in the western world ought to see this film, to reflect on what it presents and to discuss what it can teach us. Doctor Luc Perino may not be perfect, but he's the best guide we can wish for through the territory of humanity in medicine.