Le vieux fusil (1975)

Director:

Robert Enrico

Writers:

Robert Enrico (writer)
Pascal Jardin (writer)

Release Date:

22 August 1975 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller | War

Plot:

In Montauban in 1944, Julien Dandieu in a surgeon in the local hospital. Frightened by the German army entering Montauban...

Plot Keywords:

Rape | French Resistance | Beautiful Woman | 1940s | Revenge

Awards:

4 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Philippe Noiret	...	Julien Dandieu
Romy Schneider	...	Clara Dandieu
Jean Bouise	...	François
Joachim Hansen	...	L'officier S.S.
Robert Hoffmann	...	Le lieutenant
Karl Michael Vogler	...	Docteur Müller
Caroline Bonhomme	...	Florence Dandieu (8 years)
Catherine Delaporte	...	Florence Dandieu (13 years)
Madeleine Ozeray	...	Julien's Mother
Daniel Breton
Jean-Paul Cisife	...	Le chef milicien
Antoine Saint-John	...	German soldier killed in the kitchen
Maurice Bes
Bernard Bireaud
Jean Le Boulbar

Also Known As:

Abschied in der Nacht (West Germany)
Das alte Gewehr (West Germany)
The Old Gun (USA)
Vengeance One by One (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

103 min | Denmark:102 min

Country:

France | West Germany

Language:

French | German

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Netherlands:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16 (f) (cut version) | West Germany:18 (f)

Filming Locations:

Biarritz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France

Company:

Les Productions Artistes Associés

Movie Connections:

Referenced in C'est arrivé près de chez vous (1992)

disturbing in several ways

The film basically delivers an 'eye-for-an-eye' message, in circumstances such that it is almost impossible not to go along with the main character. The inevitable conclusion is that sadistic violence inflicted is a genuine solution to- or exorcism of - sadistic violence suffered. The last shot makes that very clear; Dandieu is so purged by his 'success' at eliminating the Germans that his face can relax as he abandons himself to exclusively pleasant memories

But what really struck me - although I'm still not quite sure how intentional it felt - was the way in which the idyllic 'happy family' past is destabilised and marked with violence. We gradually learn, of course, that Francoise is not Clara's daughter, that Dandieu is at least potentially jealous of Clara and insecure about their relationship,and the last flashback, of their first night together, reveals a quite brutal rejection ('You happier now? Well, that's it, it's over! It's not because you're not good-looking...'): she accepts him, it seems, only because there's a war coming. Visually the violence is more disturbing. There are the early shots of Dandieu and his colleagues laughing and joking, still in their bloodstained overalls after coming out of the operating theatre. Although it's narratively clear that he's a good and conscientious doctor, he is still 'marked' with blood - they look more like butchers than doctors. Later, there is the way the camera follows the butchering of the pig at the dance, the insistence on the minced flesh in the machines, and Clara hacking into the flesh with apparent enjoyment. These lie alongside ceremonies of suffocating religiosity, which look like the benign statues Dandieu smashes in the church. Overall I don't think the idyll is that idyllic, there's at least a suggestion that if it hadn't ended in violence it would have ended badly, and that the bicycling scene of start and end is really unrealistic, so that Dandieu having purged the horror is left with *unreal* happy memories. Whatever, it's certain that the film sees violence everywhere.

It's very powerful, I'm not sure it's nearly as black and white as it seems to want to believe.