See You Up There (2017)
Directed by Albert Dupontel
No — See You Up There is not woke, scoring 12 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
Albert Dupontel's See You Up There arrives from France with five Césars, an adaptation of Pierre Lemaitre's six-hundred-page novel of the same name, and a plot that treats the closing days of the First World War as the setup for a confidence trick.
Consciousness Markers
A central throughline is the swindle of war profiteers and a nation's commemorative racket — the dead turned into currency by bankers and monument-makers — making for a genuine, if period-specific, indictment of profiteering.
The source novel and film carry an implied same-sex attachment between Edouard and Albert (the 'gay theme' keyword), though it remains subtextual and melancholy rather than a statement of LGBTQ+ identity.
The anti-war and anti-profiteering sentiment is embedded in plot and farce rather than delivered as direct moral instruction to the audience.
The cast is a thoroughly white French ensemble with no discernible attempt at diverse or inclusive casting reflective of modern representation priorities.
Women appear as bereaved mothers and love interests but the film advances no feminist argument about gender or patriarchy.
No engagement with racial politics or the colonial dimensions of WWI, despite the historical presence of colonial troops.
No environmental or climate themes whatsoever.
Edouard's disfigurement is treated as tragedy and concealment via ornate masks, not as a body-positivity celebration of visible difference.
No depiction or framing of neurodivergence.
A fictional narrative set against real WWI history; it dramatizes the war's waste but does not rewrite or reframe the historical record for ideological purposes.
Why it received this score
Albert Dupontel's See You Up There arrives from France with five Césars, an adaptation of Pierre Lemaitre's six-hundred-page novel of the same name, and a plot that treats the closing days of the First World War as the setup for a confidence trick. Two survivors, Albert and Édouard, are bound together by a lieutenant's pointless order and then by a scheme to sell monuments to the grieving. The film is grand, eccentric, and oddly cheerful about fraud.
Where the picture carries its social charge is in its contempt for profiteering. The dead become inventory. Bankers and monument-makers convert bereavement into revenue, and the film regards the whole commemorative industry as a racket run by men in good coats. This is an indictment of greed with a period address, and it lands through farce instead of sermon. The bond between the two leads carries an implied tenderness that the film never names; it lingers as melancholy subtext, not as a declaration. Édouard's ruined face is hidden behind a series of ornate masks, treated as a wound to be concealed, which is where the film's treatment of visible difference stops.
Elsewhere the ledger is thin. The women grieve and wait. The colonial troops who fought in this war are absent from the frame. The environment, neurodivergence, and the rewriting of history for present purposes make no appearance at all. Left standing is a handsome, well-acted period piece with a sour view of money and a soft spot for its scoundrels. It is not a film with a message so much as a film with a grudge.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Synopsis
In November 1918, a few days before the Armistice, when Lieutenant Pradelle orders a senseless attack, he causes a useless disaster; but his outrageous act also binds the lives of two soldiers who have nothing more in common than the battlefield: Édouard saves Albert, although at a high cost. They become companions in misfortune who will attempt to survive in a changing world. Pradelle, in his own way, does the same.
Questions about See You Up There
Is See You Up There woke?
No — See You Up There is not woke, scoring 12 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does See You Up There have any woke elements?
2 of the 10 markers register at 30 or above, led by Eat the Rich (45) and LGBTQ+ Themes (30). On Eat the Rich: A central throughline is the swindle of war profiteers and a nation's commemorative racket — the dead turned into currency by bankers and monument-makers — making for a genuine, if period-specific, indictment of profiteering.
How does See You Up There compare to other 2017 movies?
It ranks #138 of the 309 films from 2017 we've scored; their average is 19. The wokest is I Am Not Your Negro (92).
How is the Woke Score calculated?
An AI-assisted process researches the film and its reception, scores it 0–100 on ten markers, then combines those into one 0–100 Woke Score. It measures a specific set of 2020s cultural themes, not film quality.