Holly Cow! 2001 FEMIS Film School graduate/shorts director Hubert Charuel somehow manages to write (along side Claude Le Pape) and present a remarkably interesting and touching story about dairy farming. Thirty-something Pierre (Swann Arlaud - "Romantics Anonymous" 2010) has taken over the family dairy farm, with his sister Pascale (Sara Giraudeau ""Beauty and the Beast" 2014) carrying community veterinarian duties. When surrounding farms began to loose their stock due a stock epidemic, Pierre does what he must to ensure his farm doesn't fall victim to closure. While this topic may not sound like your type of movie, the story is so well told, and provides a glimpse into the world of dairy farming that is rarely seen, that the film somehow manages to grab and sustain your attention. Charuel and Le Pape get us up close and personal with the daily chores of a dairy farm, and show us how important and time consuming this life can be, especially for the smaller farmer. Arlaud and Giraudeau make a perfect brother and sister pair, equally convincing when odds with each other, as when they try to work together. Charel's actual father (Jean Charel) perfectly plays the father role here, with other family and friends in various roles. "Bloody Milk" will probably not make it to the big screen, so keep an eye out for it in your local festival. This film was screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festiva #PSIFF2018

Pierre is a diary farmer completely devoted to his cows and seems to have little time for anything or anyone else. One day one of his cows becomes ill with a fatal, highly contagious illness that he does not want to accept, nor let anyone know about because it would mean the mandatory extermination of his entire heard of cows, and of his livelihood and entire way of life. He goes to extreme measures to eliminate this problem. I found Bloody Milk to be a lot more interesting and emotionally engaging that I'd anticipated. To the one reviewer who did not like this film complaining that it wasn't their idea of a ''feel-good' film - that was not the director's intent. I think he did want to create an interesting, moving, and realistic portrait of the plight of one committed and passionate dairy farmer faced with the elimination of his way of life and everything he's ever known, and in that regard this film succeeds quite well.

This French movie inexplicably received some award tonight (First Feature Award) from the Philadelphia Film Society. I can only assume the people who picked it were either insane or loved dairy farms. Why? Because there were much better first films there AND this was an incredibly unappealing movie.

Pierre is a man obsessed with dairy farming. He has no wife nor seems very interested in anything but his cows. But when a hemorrhagic fever attacks one of his cows, you realize Pierre is a bad person. Instead of alerting authorities and having his small herd destroyed, he killed the animal, buried AND substituted another cow for it! Then, when a second died, he stole a cow from a neighbor and replaced it with his dead one. Clearly, Pierre is a jerk-face and didn't seem to care that his herd might destroy all the farmers around him.

Watching Pierre tromping about in cow feces, shooting a cow and later seeing it covered in maggots isn't my idea of a feel-good film. Apparently it IS for some Philadelphia Film Society folks. To cut to the chase, this is a film that would only appeal to a tiny minority of people. While technically the film is well made, the story is a bit dull and gross and the hero(?) totally unlikable...and I think my score of 3 is very fair...perhaps too fair. Just who would want to see this anyway?!