Overall the Cesars get it right in terms of Best Film and if they occasionally make a complete dog's breakfast of it - as they did with L'Esquive - they have a large backlog of rewarding films as fine as this one. Robert Enrico dealt with War memorably in Au Coeur de la vie and here he does so again; different war, age-old tragedies. Superficially this comes under the 'last straw that broke the camel's back' heading crossed with what may be described as the Destry Rides Again syndrome, the protagonist finally driven to take up the gun once cast aside. Enrico begins with an idyllic sequence as the Dandieu family complete with dog cycle through a countryside in which God is in his heaven and all's right with the world. The image freezes and a caption supplies the date: 1944. We then meet the family again in wartime; Julien (Phillipe Noiret), Clara (Romy Schneider) and young daughter Florence. Even in wartime this is a HAPPY family and unprepossessing men everywhere are thinking they could do with a drop-dead gorgeous wife like Schneider whilst kids in the wake of mild chastisement wish they could belong to a family like THAT. Indeed Julien is so laid-back he makes Bing Crosby seem riddled with tension and the film hinges on what makes this worm turn. With the Germans advancing Julien prevails upon a friend to drive wife, daughter and dog to a country retreat he owns in a fairly isolated spot. When he gets a minute he drives up there himself just in time to see his daughter shot and his wife incinerated by a flame-thrower making a full set of dead villagers. This, of course, is when he feels the need for revenge and so breaks out his old hunting rifle. This is where we may wonder why it has taken so much to rouse this peaceful man; it is, after all, 1944, the fifth year of a world war and one in which France has been occupied for most of it; surely even as a civilian he has seen sufficient horrors and as a surgeon has dealt with them at first hand. The next question we find ourselves asking is why he is content to go up against men armed with pistols, rifles,machine guns, grenades and flame-throwers with only a shotgun rather than picking off one man and appropriating his weaponry.
If we don't dwell on these logical questions it is because the performances are so compelling as is Enrico's narrative style which switches back and forth in time but not necessarily chronologically and keeps well in reserve such relevations as the fact that Schneider already had the daughter when she met Noiret and was well aware of his plainness. This is nothing short of superb; beautifully written, directed and acted, and more than worthy of its Best Film Cesar.
If we don't dwell on these logical questions it is because the performances are so compelling as is Enrico's narrative style which switches back and forth in time but not necessarily chronologically and keeps well in reserve such relevations as the fact that Schneider already had the daughter when she met Noiret and was well aware of his plainness. This is nothing short of superb; beautifully written, directed and acted, and more than worthy of its Best Film Cesar.