Les égarés (2003)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

André Téchiné

Writers:

Gilles Perrault (novel)
Gilles Taurand (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

20 August 2003 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Emmanuelle Béart stars as a widowed schoolteacher who flees Nazi-occupied Paris with her children. A teenaged boy comes to their rescue by leading them into the forest -- their best shot at survival.

Plot Keywords:

Paris | Exodus | Forest | Panic | Teacher

Awards:

1 win & 5 nominations

Cast

Emmanuelle Béart	...	Odile
Gaspard Ulliel	...	Jean Delgas alias Yvan
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet	...	Philippe
Clémence Meyer	...	Cathy
Samuel Labarthe	...	Robert
Jean Fornerod	...	Georges
Eric Kreikenmayer	...	Le garde
Nicholas Mead	...	Le soldat blesse
Robert Eliot	...	Le jeune gendarme
Nigel Hollidge	...	Le réfugie

Directed by
André Téchiné

Writing credits
Gilles Perrault		(novel "Le Garçon aus Yeux Gris")
Gilles Taurand		(screenplay, adaptation and dialogue) &
André Téchiné		(screenplay, adaptation and dialogue)

Produced by
Adam Betteridge	....	executive producer
Michael Cowan	....	co-producer (as Michaël Cowan)
Pierre Héros	....	co-producer
Alex Marshall	....	associate producer
Jason Piette	....	co-producer
Jean-Pierre Ramsay-Levi	....	producer
David Rogers	....	executive producer
Jonathan Vanger	....	co-producer

Original Music by
Philippe Sarde

Cinematography by
Agnès Godard

Film Editing by
Martine Giordano

Casting by
Jacques Grant

Production Design by
Zé Branco

Costume Design by
Christian Gasc

Makeup Department
Cédric Gérard	....	key makeup artist
Suzanne Jansen	....	key hair stylist
Isabelle Luzet	....	key hair stylist
Olivier Seyfrid	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Guillaume Bounaud	....	unit manager trainee
Muriel Delcayre	....	post-production manager
Daniel Szuster	....	production manager
Bruno Vignier	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Sandra Mainguené	....	first assistant director
Yann Saint-Pé	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Virginie Le Romain	....	assistant to art director

Sound Department
Jean-Raphaël Dedieu	....	sound editor
Geraldine Falieu	....	sound edit assistant
Gilles Fargout	....	dialog editor
Olivier Goinard	....	supervising sound editor
Jean-Pierre Laforce	....	sound mixer
Jean-Paul Mugel	....	sound
Yves-Marie Omnes	....	boom operator

Visual Effects by
Alan Church	....	visual effects supervisor
Simon Giles	....	visual effects producer
Foad Shah	....	digital compositor
Mark Slade	....	digital compositor

Stunts
Emilie Lelouch	....	stunts
Claire Leroy	....	stunts
Stéphane Margot	....	stunts
Barbara Pruvosd	....	stunts
Catherine Robert	....	stunts
Thierry Saelens	....	stunt coordinator
Alain Vanneville	....	stunts
Daniel Vérité	....	stunt coordinator
Julien Vérité	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Jean-François Baumard	....	still photographer
Tony Chapuis	....	second assistant camera
Sébastien Joffard	....	assistant camera
Lionel Perrin	....	first assistant camera

Casting Department
Meriem Amari	....	extras casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Laurence Guindollet	....	wardrobe (as Laurence Michelland Guindollet)

Editorial Department
Camille Toubkis	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Jean-Pierre Azéma	....	historical consultant
Shirine Best	....	development assistant: UK
Sarah Devos	....	script supervisor assistant
Mel Hider	....	assistant: Mr. Cowan and Mr. Piette
Richard Hyland	....	production accountant: UK
Emily Kyriakides	....	assistant to producer: UK
Mario Luraschi	....	horse master
Lucy Shuttleworth	....	development executive: UK
Claudine Taulère	....	script supervisor

Thanks
Monique Wittig	....	dedicatee

Production Companies

• FIT Productions
• Spice Factory (as Spice Factory)
• France 2 Cinéma
• Canal+ (participation)
• Gimages 6 (participation)
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (participation)
• Conseil Régional Midi-Pyrénées (participation)

Distributors

• Wild Bunch (2003) (worldwide) (all media) (sales)
• Mars Distribution (2003) (France) (theatrical)
• Wild Side Vidéo (2004) (France) (DVD)
• Frenetic Films (2003-2004) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• GAGA Communications (2004) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Paradiso Home Entertainment (2004) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Primer Plano Film Group (2004) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• KinoVista (2008) (Algeria) (TV)
• KinoVista (2008) (Morocco) (TV)
• KinoVista (2008) (Tunisia) (TV)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2005) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Wellspring Media (2004) (USA) (subtitled)

Special Effects

• Hypnosis VFX Ltd. (digital visual effects)

Other Companies

• Pro Arte Orchestra of London  orchestra
• Éditions Fayard  book publisher

Also Known As:

Strayed (Europe: English title) (International: English title)
Le garçon aux yeux gris (France) (working title)

Runtime:

France:95 min | USA:95 min | Argentina:95 min

Country:

France | UK

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | UK:15 | Australia:M | Netherlands:12 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Japan:R-15 | USA:Unrated | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Castres, Tarn, France

Company:

FIT Productions

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Cinemania: I anodos kai i ptosi tou Nazismou" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Zum ziele fuehrt dich diese Bahn

Captivating characterizations

Andre Techini's "Strayed," or perhaps more accurately, "the lost" or "displaced" people, has a simple premise. A school teacher, whose husband was killed in the early days of the war, takes her two children and flees Paris in the face of the Nazi advance on the City of Lights. In the countryside, as they are stuck in a massive traffic jam made up of refugees, they are strafed by German fighters in a harrowing scene that reminds you a little of the bombardment of the advancing troops in "All Quiet on the Western Front."

They lose their car and all their possessions, but are rescued by a strange, resourceful teenager who becomes their guide, companion, but in some ways, their charge, as they try to hide out -- from the war itself.

This is the kind of film that most American audiences wouldn't like, because after that strafing run, not another shot is fired, not another blow struck. The story that plays out is about the main characters getting to know, tolerate and even grow found of one another, but then finding themselves faced with some uncomfortable choices.

Gregoire LaPrince-Ringuet is very good as the 13-year-old boy of the family who might have been elevated to the man of the house status, had not the mysterious teenager arrived on the scene. But rather than show resentment, he winds up doing everything possible to become the older boy's friend.

Gaspard Ulliel is quite effective as the older boy, a sort of domesticated wild child. But the film belongs to Emmanuelle Beart, who plays the mother.

Beart's character is fascinating. She has lost her husband, her home, everything she has except her two kids. She is on the road with them, dead broke, dead tired and close to despairing. But of course, she is a tower of strength, right, magnificently holding her family together in the face of personal disaster and global chaos.

Actually, no. Beart's character is depicted as a woman clearly out of her depth who can barely keep herself together in the face of the problems confronting her. She's like a ticking time bomb, ready to completely fall apart at any moment. The only thing that holds her together is her rigid, school teacher training that allows her to continue to run her fugitive family as if she is maintaining order in a classroom during an unplanned fire drill.

And it works. Beart comes off neither as the typical weak, frightened woman Hollywood movies presented so often in the 50s, nor the kick butt superwoman that we see so often in American films today. Beart is so frightened during the air attack that she pees in her pants. She is so in need of structure to take her mind off things that she starts cleaning the windows of the abandoned home they later hide in.

But she is also together enough to handle a couple of French soldiers who drift by, easily dealing with them when her self-appointed teenage protector is so unsettled by these two potential rapists he can't even stay in the house with them.

Beart underplays her role, which features spartan dialogue to begin with. But there is a lot going on for her and you see it all playing out in her eyes, and behind her eyes as well.

It is another great performance from this French star and the film would be worth seeing just to study her acting, even if she were not one of the screen's great beauties.