Weekend at Dunkirk (1964) User Reviews

Not exactly a beach party

[GrandeMarguerite · 8/10 · 6 April 2009]

It is really amazing that what was one of the biggest popular successes of the 60s in the French cinema has only one review on the IMDb! So here is my little contribution.

For those who have seen the recent "Atonement", the story will look familiar as the film is about one of the darkest episodes of WWII (i.e. the retreat of British and French troops at Dunkirk in June 1940), an episode evoked perhaps too briefly in the British film. In June 1940, British and French troops fighting against the Germans in Northern France were forced to retreat to the coastal town of Dunkirk and its suburbs. Their only hope of escape was to cross the Channel to England, but the boats were scarce and all the time they were attacked from the air by German fighter planes. This is literally the background for the whole movie. During two hours, we follow a young soldier named Julien Maillat through what was actually a terrible mess. Based on the first novel by Robert Merle, which was awarded the Goncourt Prize (the French equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize), "Week-end à Zuydcoote" is a realistic and grim portrayal of war. Merle himself was trapped on Dunkirk's beaches in 1940, and this brought a touch of authenticity to his work. Besides, when most war films depict glory and victory, this one is about defeat and loss. Therefore, the movie is not about battles between armies of nameless soldiers; it shows instead the boredom, frustration, fear and anger of ordinary human beings - all compressed into a turbulent two day period. That being said, don't expect one of those French "high brow" films! Henri Verneuil was an excellent filmmaker who knew how to make a real blockbuster (as this one proved to be). Although I never regarded him as an original nor even a prominent director, "Week-end à Zuydcoote" is perhaps his best effort. Well served by an excellent cast (leading man Jean-Paul Belmondo in one of his best parts, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Pierre Mondy as a gradually repulsive swindler...), the movie has benefited from Henri Decaë's exceptional cinematography and Maurice Jarre's fine score. Verneuil has managed to construct a believable reconstruction of the episode, which matches some of the best Hollywoodian movies on that period. The weak point (and this prevents me from giving this movie a 10/10) is the story that unfolds around the encounter of Maillat (Belmondo) and a young woman (Catherine Spaak) who resolutely refuses to leave her home in the suburbs of Dunkirk. This part of the movie seems artificial. While Verneuil is very good at depicting the protagonists' experiences, he proves to be clumsy with this segment. In spite of this minor flaw, "Week-end à Zuydcoote" is a thoroughly enjoyable show and a bitter reflection on war.

Good film about ¨The Dunkirk evacuation¨ , also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk , code-named Operation Dynamo

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 24 February 2016]

This an important, interesting movie depicting Battle of Dunkirk , this was an important battle that took place in Dunkirk, France, during the Second World War between the Allies and Germany . As part of the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle was the defence and evacuation of British and allied forces in Europe from 26 May–4 June 1940 , being shot with monumental logistics and means of effecting the landings to rescue escaped soldiers . This spectacular adventure about one of the most difficult campaign of war detailing the epic feats of some brave heroes contains noisy action , German raids , idealism , romance , unlimited courage , breathtaking battles and impressive sandy outdoors . Set during World War II, and stuck on the beaches near Dunkirk , Julien Maillat (Jean Paul Belmondo) attempts to join Great Britain by boat with the English Army , but cannot succeed . He , then , attempts to organize the life for him and his soldiers friends as Pinot (Georges Géret) , Pierson (Jean-Pierre Marielle) and Dhéry (Pierre Mondy) between shells , plane attacks on the beaches , bombings , and mayhem . Meanwhile , he meets a beautiful girl (Catherine Spaak) who is about to be raped .

This spectacular war movie contains thrills , exciting battles , aerial raids , dogfighting , romance and historical events . It is an enjoyable movie about friendship , warlike feats , courage and good feeling . This War movie packs crossfire , large-scale action , battles , shots of troops , landings and many other things . This film's source novel "Weekend at Zuydcoote" by Robert Merle won the 1949 Prix Goncourt, a prestigious French literary award . Acceptable movie pulls things together enough to rise thanks to continuous images of military marches , explosions , smoke and shootouts . This would-be blockbuster is not a description of such an important event but it is a context in which the battle offers the concrete development , life and death , a few men , Belmondo and his friends , being surrounded on the beaches of Dunkirk . The pic is well starred by Jean Paul Belmondo , a likable actor who has performed all kinds of genres as adventure : ¨Swashbuckler¨, ¨Le Magnifique¨, ¨The man from Rio¨, Cartouche¨, Polar : ¨Le Professionnel¨, ¨Stavisky¨, ¨Borsalino¨ , Comedy caper : ¨¨The brain¨ , Wartime : ¨Is Paris burning ?¨, ¨Two women¨ and Nouvelle Vague : ¨Pierrot Le Fou¨ "Breathless" . The movie broke box office records after bringing in a lot of money at the French box office . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Henri Decae , being shot at the actual location of one of the operation Dynamo evacuations, on the beaches of Bray-Dunes near Dunkirk . Rousing and thrilling musical score by the great composer Maurice Jarre . The film is magnificently produced with big budget by Raymond and Robert Hakim . This famous event from how was orchestrated the notorious battle and the dangerous , risky landings maneuvers was professionally directed by Henry Verneuil who also made other WWII films : "The Vultures" with Belmondo , "The 25th Hour" with Anthony Quinn and "The Cow and I" with Fernandel .

The picture was well based on historical events , these are the followings : General Von Kuechler assumed command of all the German forces at Dunkirk. His plan was simple: he would launch an all-out attack across the whole front . Strangely, he ignored a radio intercept telling him the British were abandoning the eastern end of the line to fall back to Dunkirk itself. Although Churchill had promised the French that the British would cover their escape, on the ground it was the French who held the line while the last remaining British were evacuated. Enduring concentrated German artillery fire and Luftwaffe strafing and bombs, the French stood their ground. On 2 June (the day the last of the British units embarked onto the ships), the French began to fall back slowly, and by 3 June the Germans were about two miles (3 km) from Dunkirk. The night of 3 June was the last night of evacuations. On 4 June , the Germans hoisted the swastika over the docks from which so many British and French troops had escaped under their noses The War Office made the decision to evacuate British forces on 25 May. In the nine days from 27 May–4 June, 338,226 men escaped, including 139,997 French, Polish, and Belgian troops, together with a small number of Dutch soldiers, aboard 861 vessels -of which 243 were sunk during the operation-. British Fighter Command lost 106 aircraft dogfighting over Dunkirk, and the Luftwaffe lost about 135 – some of which were shot down by the French Navy and the Royal Navy . The docks at Dunkirk were too badly damaged to be used, but the East and West Moles or sea walls were intact. Captain William Tennant —in charge of the evacuation— decided to use the beaches and the East Mole to land the ships. This highly successful idea hugely increased the number of troops that could be embarked each day, and indeed at the rescue operation's peak, on 31 May, over 68,000 men were taken off. The last of the British Army left on 3 June and all of them returning to Dover. However, Churchill insisted on coming back for the French, so the Royal Navy returned on 4 June in an attempt to rescue as many as possible of the French rearguard. Over 26,000 French soldiers were evacuated on that last day, but between 30,000 and 40,000 more were left behind and forced to surrender to the Germans .

A Gem of a movie

[raymond-andre · 8/10 · 3 March 2014]

There are only three films to my knowledge that attempt to tell the story of this pivotal event of World War Two. A segment in the very bleak "Atonement", the 1950S Black and White British movie "Dunkirk" and this 1964 french movie.

Several years ago I caught about fifteen minutes of this Belmondo film on a cable channel while I was travelling on business. I made it a point to track it down and get a copy on DVD, only to find that the copy I ordered online was an awful English dub.

Despite this, I find this movie riveting. As the simple story progresses, Belmondo's character tries to find his way off the beach at Dunkirk and over to England. Director Verneuil keeps the focus on Belmondo's Picaresque adventures, so we have someone to root for.

There is a refreshing naiveté to Belmondo's Julien Maillat when compared to some of his later hard boiled characters. He drifts from one twisted adventure to another and as he sees a lot of death and destruction one senses an emotional cocoon forming around him layer by layer. The varied people he meets and their stories are vivid and touching.

The "sets", a small coastal town, a ship and the beaches, are appropriately open and huge. The number of extras needed to fill the canvas is stunning and the "battle" scenes are as spectacular as any of those from war movies of this period (excpting The Longest Day).

This isn't a deep psychological character study or anything. Julien simply does what most people would do in his situation. He lends a hand here or there or hangs out and philosophizes with his buddies, one of which is a catholic army chaplain slash priest. This of course opens up a discussion of what God is doing about all this.

Julien strikes up a relationship with a girl from the town which takes a strange and sinister turn towards the end.

I didn't love the story's resolution. I haven't read the book and do not know If the film follows it faithfully. It just struck me as unsatisfying.

But despite this the rest of the movie was well worth seeking out. If you can, see it in french with subtitles rather than in its dubbed version.

war stories

[Kirpianuscus · 30 June 2022]

It is a film deserving be loved like the novel inspiring it. The motif is more than simple - the cast and the cinematography and the brilliant simplicity , proposing fair reactions , nice dialogues, answers to the challenges, inspired portraits of love and comradery becoming friendship, precise definition of death and a great work of Jean Paul Belmondo.

Few scenes as the boats to the ships or as the horse toy in wave.

Very simple, must see it. Because it is more than a war film. It propose, in admirable manner, just simple war stories of ordinary people, out of recipes of heroism.

After reading the book (as a Merle fan)

[david-szentivanyi · 6/10 · 16 May 2022]

After just finishing reading the novel, which I regard now as one of the best war time books and which for me spoke about poignancy, faith, sexuality, believes (not as per faith itself) and manhood, I have decided to watch the movie as well.

The movie mostly faithfully depicts the events in the novels and mostly stays true to it. Unfortunately though the movie lacks the heart and soul of the novel and rather gives (for me) a third person view of the main character as we follow him and the events in contrast to the source material.

The cast for the most part is good, though obviously Belmondo excels in his role. Set design, atmosphere and looks are incredibly good, even in 2022, if you are used to 60 - 70s era movies.

Overall, it's an entertaining movie,IF YOU HAVENT READ THE NOVEL BY NOW, THEN GO AND WATCH THE MOVIE, but for someone regarding the source material in a high esteem, unfortunatelly its a disapointment.

Cheers, David from Hungary.

Endless & Aimless Movement

[qeasp · 7/10 · 1 December 2020]

I found myself distracted by the background of the continual movements of squads of soldiers, aimlessly marching backwards & forwards, in opposite directions, for no obvious reasons & completely oblivious to the presence of the three principal characters.

riveting

[myriamlenys · 8/10 · 6 September 2017]

The French title is, of course, richly ironic, as the movie describes the very specific evil which arises when a man-made catastrophe hits an area (in this case, a smiling beach and an hospitable town) made for summer picnics and lazy walks. Moreover, the movie makes the point (and how) that two days last an eternity for people surrounded by nerve-wracking danger.

Serpent-like, the movie moves easily and fluidly from humor to sadness, from profundity to absurdity, from banality to despair and from bitterness to resolve. The war atmosphere is convincing and realistic and there are some fine performances. Belmondo, who is both the hero and anti-hero, gives a performance of rare humanity and maturity ; in my humble opinion, this is one of his best roles.

This does not mean that "Weekend" is free of tonal missteps. I have always been amazed by the weird "love affair" tacked unto the story ; it may have been meant as a ray of sunshine or a beacon of hope but if so the effect misfires badly. This is pretty much the passive / aggressive relationship from hell, born in darkness and quite as scary as any of the military mayhem flattening the town.

There looms a chasm between "Weekend" and the very recent "Dunkirk" : both movies are radically different in structure, scope, tone and ambition. It's remarkable how the human imagination can shed such different lights on identical (or at least vastly similar) events.

Life's A Beach And Then You Die!

[zardoz-13 · 10/10 · 30 July 2023]

French director Henri's World War II drama "Weekend at Dunkirk," with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Spaak, and Ronald Howard, is a tragic reenactment of the evacuation of British and French troops from the seaside city as the German Army descends in force on the Allies. Naturally, Belmondo is cast as lowly French soldier who follows his buddies to the beaches to get transported to England. During the timespan of a weekend, our young, adventurous hero encounters nothing but trouble. You know this isn't going to be a frivolous French war comedy when we meet Julien Maillat (Jean-Claude Belmondo of "The Burglars") as he heads off to Dunkirk. The first person he runs into has a cart that he uses to collect the bodies of dead civilians. Maillat's friend is trundling the beautiful but unblemished body of a French woman to the civilian authorities in charge of disposing of casualties. Mind you, this opening foreshadows a series of grim events that culminate in our hero dying on the beach. The girl is perfectly preserved in a dress without a scratch on her, but she is in fact dead. Julien's comrades have taken up residence on the beaches of Bray-Dunes near Dunkirk, the actual location of one of the operation Dynamo evacuations.

During his time in the area, Julien meets a pretty young thing, Jeanne (Catherine Spaak of "The Cat o' Nine Tails"), who lives in a house near the beach. When bombs were falling earlier in the film, Julien saw this babe standing on her balcony with a pair of binoculars watching Luftwaffe aircraft bomb the town and the beach. Eventually, Julien meets her and they are attracted to each other, but any further plans are delayed because our protagonist is befriended by a sympathetic British officer, Robinson (Ronald Howard of "Gideon of Scotland Yard"), who arranges for Julien to be taken off to London along with British troops. At the same time, Julien stumbles onto a British soldier and his French wife who are looking to be evacuated, too. Repeatedly, the soldier's gruff superiors inform him in no uncertain words that they cannot include him in their ranks. Later, Julien discovers they are on the same transport that Robinson got him cleared to take. Bad luck strikes again when a German aircraft bombs the ship, and the French wife dies in an explosion on board. Poor Julien abandons the sinking ship with the other survivors and finds himself back where he started from in Dunkirk.

The relationship between Julien and Jeanne takes on a different tone when our hero decides to visit her. After all, she had promised him a home cooked dinner if he will come back. Unfortunately, events have taken a turn for the worst, and Julien walks in on to fellow French soldiers who are trying rape Jeanne. When Julien tries to intervene, the two French soldiers overpower him, shatter a vase on his head, and send him bouncing down the staircase. Satisfied that he won't interfere, the two lusty Frenchmen hold down the screaming damsel-in-distress and resume trying to rape her. Earlier, Julien had asked them to leave, but they ignored him. Now, when he enters the room where these two dastards are poised to rape her, he pulls out an automatic pistol and kills both of them. No sooner has Julien dispatched these two French soldiers than Jeanne comes on to him like a prostitute, but he rejects her. Throughout all this melodrama, Luftwaffe fighter planes attack the beaches and strafe them with hot lead. Meantime, Jeanne has sworn never to leave her residence.

Nothing about "Weekend at Dunkirk" is remotely rabble rising. The production values are impressive with this wartime disaster. Soldiers in French and British uniforms flood the beachside resort. In a sense, Verneuil made "Weekend at Dunkirk" to show the evacuation from the French perspective. Producer Robert Hakim shelled out a lot of money to recreate Dunkirk and it is all visible, especially with the parades and personnel.

Le Week-End.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 5/10 · 26 August 2019]

With Bank Holiday Monday taking place,I decided to watch one of the longer flicks I have laying around waiting to be played. Having enjoyed seeing members of the cast in a number of movies, I got set to witness their war-time weekend.

View on the film:

Despite having shown in other works that they can give mesmerising performances, Catherine Spaak and Marie Dubois are here pushed to the sidelines with flat roles, which to the credit of them both, are given a nervousness that does not come across in the script. Performing his own stunts, Jean-Paul Belmondo gives a fittingly rugged performance as Maillat, whose swagger gets cut down by Belmondo when the bombs land.

Filmed on the Bray-Dunes beaches where some Dunkirk evacuations actually took place, director Henri Verneuil & cinematographer Henri Decae charge in with a "Teatime Movie" atmosphere of rattling wide crane shots sweeping along the explosive battlefield. Attempting to turn the mood serious near the end with an attempted rape, Verneuil never fully frees the flick from the Boys Own Adventure setting, (complete with British generals sipping tea) via scenes such as the attempted rape being swiftly moved on for more grand-standing action. Firmly established as a family friend,come on chaps wartime adventure, Francois Boyer adaptation of Robert Merle's sits utterly at odds with the tone, being most bluntly felt in the swearing dialogue coming across utterly miss-matched to the Teatime spent on a weekend a Dunkirk.

Professor Robert Merle passed away in 2004

[msbsegal · 17 February 2008]

17 Feb 2008

I have just discovered that my revered Professor Robert Merle had passed away in 2004, and I feel a pinch in my heart.

He taught English Literature at the Paris University. He wrote his PhD thesis on Oscar Wilde and made some astounding revelation and discoveries, at that time. But he taught us also Shakespeare, Jane Austen, etc. My love of Austen' s novels come from sitting at his lectures.

At the beginning of WWII, Prof. Merle fled the debacle of the French Army; on the beach of Dunkirk he managed to get himself on the English boat that took him to free London, and this true story his very well depicted in "Weekend at Zuydcoote", which is a true biographical story, and very well played by Jean-Pierre Belmondo. I must say that he was twice taken prisoner by the Germans and interned in POW camps, from which he tried to escape. He told us, I remember very well, that we should be aware of sleeping on concrete slabs, but sleeping on wood was quite healthy. I did remember this good advice 20 years later...

He was a strong supporter of the Algerian Ben-Bella, who was of course murdered in a plane crash : if a man loves his country and wants the best for it, he should be killed.....

The late Professor Robert Merle, the tremendous author of "The Day of the Dolphin", and others, was a great lecturer; I will always remember his jokes, good humor and immense knowledge of the English Literature.

I am sad he is gone; I feel a slice of my youth is gone with him, even though I do have all the softening memories.

No drama, no tension, no story, no point.

[weirdquark · 3/10 · 29 July 2022]

It takes real skill to make such an inherently dramatic story so damn boring and utterly drained of all interest and vitality.

The amazing shooting location, the vintage fighter planes, the explosions, the hundreds or thousands of background extras... all wasted on a film with no story. In place of a story, they give us a random string of random encounters between random people who talk and talk, and then talk some more about nothing. They walk and talk. They sit and talk. They smoke and talk. They drink and talk. And then some bombs go off, or some Messerschmitts fly low and strafe the soldiers. And then we're back to pointless talking. This is not a film. It's two hours of footage.

And it's unfortunately characteristic of a particular kind of French film (especially a 1960s French film) where we get a cast of automatons who don't at all resemble real human characters but go around engaging in inane chit chat or robotically spouting meaningless philosophical musings or dialectics. It's so 60s. It's so French.

Has pictorial qualities to match Nolan's version

[philosopherjack · 5 October 2019]

Henri Verneuil's 1964 Weekend at Dunkirk has (to a surprising extent) pictorial qualities to match Christopher Nolan's more recent treatment of the evacuation, with a more personal and haunting overall narrative. It was much remarked how Nolan withheld some basic information about surrounding events for instance by omitting any glimpses of Churchill, but Verneuil does something very similar, dropping his protagonist Julien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) into the middle of the action, leaving no doubt about its momentous nature, but emphasizing Julien's confusion about what's going on (the most salient point about the British operation is that they don't want to take the French with them) and his indecision about how best to survive without succumbing to desertion or cowardice. Beneath all the terrific spectacle and impactful incident, there's something close to lurking black comedy in how Julien keeps finding himself back at the same point on the beach, even as others leave in one way or another (to the point that he's ultimately the last one left): his conversations with a priest add to the sense of moral inquiry. Julien embodies all the ambiguity of war, intuitively working to strike up a mutually respectful rapport (even, eventually, with an obstructive British officer), but reacting with as much skepticism to an individual who thinks too calculatingly of his own survival as to another who too aggressively brandishes his giant gun: the only soldiers he directly kills are French ones, to save a woman from being raped, but then her subsequent actions have him wondering almost immediately whether he did the right thing. The fact that Catherine Spaak would have second billing in a film about Dunkirk perhaps sums up the commercial friendliness that influences one's view of Verneuil, but in the end her presence adds more than it detracts, speaking to his consistent ability to create unified, textured works.