The Wanderer (1967) User Reviews

Though now something of a curiosity piece, ....

[donaldthomson · 7/10 · 23 March 2006]

Though now something of a curiosity piece, the DVD version of this 1967 film was worth tracking down (via Price Minister).

Director Jean-Gabriel Albicocco provides a pretty faithful rendering of the plot of Alain-Fournier's classic novel and, more importantly, captures something of its elegiac tone - even if he is a little heavy-handed in blurring his lenses during the scenes at the mysterious party at the lost domain. The landscapes and settings, so important in Fournier's poetic imagination, evoke both the magic and the desolation of the novel. The film is also superbly lit.

Jean Blaise was a real find as the protagonist, as he possesses the intensity necessary to Meaulnes's charisma. Brigitte Fossey occasionally teeters perilously close to a simpering quality, but at other points succeeds in conveying the elusive and fragile beauty of the fabulous Yvonne De Galais.

It will be fascinating to compare Albicocco's vision with the version due for release in France in 2006.

A beautiful fantasy which sparked my imagination

[nmelhorn · 8/10 · 6 July 1999]

I saw LGM in French with subtitles (and two years of high school French!). It felt like a pleasant dream (visual, ideas), and I remembered it quite well -- but I had forgotten the title. I described it to a French friend several years later, and he named it for me right away. If I see it advertised for a theatre again, I'll definitely go, now that my French is a little better and my appreciation of fantasy much enhanced.

Great movie, cheap DVD

[info-1405 · 8/10 · 25 November 2017]

Personally, I have never been able to go through the novel by Alain-Fournier, despite I tried many times in the last five decades, borrowing the book from public libraries in the different locations I lived. On the other hand, I could watch and enjoy the whole 1967 Albicocco's movie when I was a youngster, and I still can do it today thanks to the DVD release. So this first screen adaptation must be quite effective, and it is a faithful one apparently.

Not only the intricate story becomes much more easy to understand ; the daring cinematography, the swift editing, the sensitive music score and of course the performers – most of them being fresh newcomers – are compelling. Watching this timeless movie is immersing ourselves in a dreamy world and becoming acquainted with characters who are closely related to the misty landscapes of Sologne. A unique and fascinating experience.

At the time when I am writing this review, what prevents this version of Le grand Meaulnes to become more popular outside France is the lack of English subtitles of the DVD release. It would also have deserved more consistent and various extras in both languages. Sadly French cinematic producers are often cheap and unambitious when time comes to reissue their best achievements.

A very special and magical piece of movie history

[alw-5 · 10/10 · 9 October 2005]

It is a tragedy that this quite remarkable film remains virtually unknown and unobtainable. I have a VHS version that plays in B&W without subtitles. bought at the Alain-Fournier museum in France. It crops up at art houses as The Wanderer and may be obtainable on DVD under this name. It has never, to my knowledge, been shown on British television.

This film changed my life. The first time I saw it, back in about 1983, I sat through it twice in a row. I subsequently read the book, visited the locations in the film, all of them connected with the author, and wrote one of the several stage musicals based on the work.

What is most remarkable about the film is not just the visual intensity and dream-like camera-work - Vaseline on the lens for the strange domain itself - or the romantic and memorable score , but the quality of the performances from a largely unknown, in some cases amateur cast. Not only the luminous Brigitte Fossey, but a stunning performance from the young Alain Libolt, who appeared recently in Erich Rohmer's A Tale of Autumn. Meaulnes himself is unforgettably personified by a young man from Bourges hand-picked by the author's niece, Madame Isabelle Riviere, who oversaw the production. His name: Jean Blaise. He may to my knowledge have made only one film, but it is a performance that few trained actors could ever hope to equal. The final scenes are especially moving.

If you get a chance to see this, drop everything and go.

Andrew Lowe Watson

After years of looking, I found the DVD ....

[johnrmanning · 10/10 · 14 February 2006]

After years of looking, I found the DVD of Le Grand Meaulnes sitting on the shelf in Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees in Paris. It seems to have been recently published. It's in French of course and without sub titles but if you know the film, then you know the book too and don't need the English. There is some biographical material about Alain-Fournier on the DVD plus the original cinema trailer (and even a bonus second DVD, La Fille aux Yeux D'or, also by Albicocco).

I saw the film of Le Grand Meaulnes back in 1973/4 and again sometime during the Eighties at a London screening. It is still as fresh, original and magical now as it was then. In some respects, the 1972 Nicholas Roeg film of Don't Look Now, also a classic of its kind, has some echoes of this Albicocco masterpiece - mainly in the use of light and its effects, but also in some scenes: a red brooch is held to the light, the passing boats on the lake, Yvonne de Galais falling in the stream, the time shifts in the narrative.

wow.

[emily-green · 12 August 2003]

This is one of those rare films that stays on your mind for years, even though you might not remember much about it anymore. I saw this in 1998-only once-but sometimes find myself thinking about it. I remember walking out of the theater right after I saw it and feeling different than I did two hours earlier. Aside from Alain Fournier's excellent story, I think the film just conveys a particular mood really well--you feel affected and somewhat hypnotized by the movie. I can't say that I've had that experience very many times. I have tried to find this film on VHS several times over the past few years, but have not been successful (although I see that Amazon might have, at one time, offered it). Anybody with information on how I might obtain this amazing movie, please let me know.

Absolutely true to the original novel

[chouan · 5/10 · 13 December 1998]

Unfortunately the movie does not capture the oniric quality of Alain Fournier's only novel.Maybe Marcel Carné or Jean Renoir could have done it. As it is, the movie is technically good, but a spark is missing... What a pity!

astonishing film, brilliant camera-work

[macduff50 · 9/10 · 23 April 2005]

Filmed in cinemascope, and making full use of the aspect ratio, watching this film is like being immersed in another world. For much of the first quarter of the movie, we're at a strange party at a country house, and very little in the way of dialogue is spoken to explain things. We are simply there, and the camera prowls through the crowd and around the house and grounds, and we follow, seeing what it sees, and trying to piece it all together. It's a bravura opening, and the film stalls a little afterwards, until it once again establishes its rhythm. It's a tale of a young man, wandering, searching for a path in life, and the constantly mobile camera expresses his wanderlust, just as the beauty (and sometimes strangeness) of the shots expresses his amazed and youthful eye on the world. It's too bad that this film is not available in its original, uncut length, indeed that it's totally unavailable anywhere (except, perhaps, France?), because it is a hidden treasure. Anyone who cares for the art and craft of movie-making should watch this film. Not only is it expertly made, it packs an emotional punch too. It's not to be compared to the novel, because film works differently. But the spirit of the book is intact, and the translation into visual terms is as stunning as the original prose.

Doesn't quite work.

[Zoomorph · 3/10 · 7 July 2015]

This film tries too hard to be weird, surreal, and fast-paced. It seems like the director was trying to create an atmosphere of intrigue, mystery, dreaminess, and magic. It worked too some degree but it came at a cost and could've been done much better.

From the beginning, it's difficult to follow what's happening because the story jumps around too rapidly. The characters are never revealed to us, but kept at a distance and thin as cardboard. While this keeps them mysterious and makes the story feel more like a fairy tale, it also makes us much less able to empathize with or care about them.

In the middle, the film slows down a little. Unsurprisingly, it gets tedious. We don't learn much about the one-dimensional characters for the length of time spent on their story.

Towards the end, we start to sympathize with the characters a little due to the heightened emotions shown on screen. We grasp the tragedy of their story, but they still don't feel real and it's too late to salvage the film.

Ultimately, this film feels rather hollow and gimmicky. The characters aren't real. As plenty of better films have demonstrated, you can build a strong sense of mystery and intrigue without sacrificing having characters. Alternatively, if the film was technically stronger, it might have kept the viewer engaged that way.

Once seen, always remembered - a magical film

[laura-woodruff · 10/10 · 29 July 2004]

I've been lucky enough to see this film three times - I once made a 200 mile return journey in an evening to see it at one of its rare screenings - and would watch it again and again if only it were ever screened. It captures perfectly both the dream quality and the desperate tragedy of Alain-Fournier's novel.

The film has haunted me for 30 years, since I first saw it at the age of 13.

If you spot it at your local arts cinema, go and see it.

Come on someone, release the subtitled version on video. After a long and arduous search, I managed to buy the non-subtitled version, but there must be a big enough English-speaking market to make it worth someone's while.

*The unsubtitled version is available at http://www.priceminister.com **Apparently, the subtitled version is available from the Connoisseur Video Collection of Ingram International Films (1-800-356-3577) for $79.95. It's 108 minutes long, VHS format, French with English subtitles.

Memorable,Magical

[swilliams8251 · 10/10 · 11 July 2006]

I have been looking for a copy of this movie for over 10 years.

I remember some of the scenes, the light, the colours. Our group of friends, and one especially who is about the best photographer in the world, had gone to new york city to view this movie. I am still, 40 years later, viewing that movie in my mind. I see that this film has affected many viewers the same way. This movie was so visual it was tactile. why can't I find this movie again? WAhhhhh!!!

Its has to be an incredible movie to stick with you for over 40 years in such a strong way. If anyone has a copy of it or knows where to find a copy hopefully with subtitles, please let me know. I would ever be so grateful. Regards, sheri

One of the best dramatisations of any novel

[maceoin · 10/10 · 28 December 2004]

The commentator who found only technical perfection in this film, but for whom a spark was missing, obviously hasn't lived with this masterpiece as I have, since it first appeared in 1967. I went to it the first time with the friend who had introduced me to the novel some years earlier, and we were both sceptical that it would be anything but a pastiche. At the end, we were both staring at the blank screen, tears rolling down our cheeks, certain we had seen something greatly out of the ordinary. It's a wonderful novel, the greatest French novel of the 20th century, and the film succeeds brilliantly in capturing as much of its magical and romantic atmosphere as could be expected. Seeing it again on DVD – though I've seen it many times in between – I find myself assailed by the same emotions. More than that, I am impressed by just how modern it feels. So many films from the 60s seem technically less fluent nowadays, but Le Grand Meaulnes seems as though made only yesterday. And where would a modern director find his Yvonne de Galais. In Maria de Medeiros, perhaps, but even she could hardly surpass Albicoco's Yvonne. What a plot, what performances, what a perfect adaptation.

Magic, with the sense of imminent revelation

[agnest · 10/10 · 12 April 2001]

I feel very lucky to have seen this film on one of the few times it was ever shown in Seattle! It carries brilliantly the feeling of mystery and magic, of mystical revelations just beyond the horizon, of perfect happiness just out of reach... I was inspired by the film to seek out the novel, and then a biography of the author, and was not at all surprised to learn that this was the book whose spirit John Fowles was attempting to emulate when he wrote _The Magus_. It is a beautiful depiction of that which one doesn't quite comprehend, the adolescent world of Truth, Beauty, Honor and Love, the sense of immortality imbued with capital-letter qualities and the glory of discovery.

Anyone who has the opportunity to see this remarkable film should do so, and the novel is well worth reading as well.

If you loved the book, you'll love the movie.

[steve-3031 · 10/10 · 18 August 2006]

Having read (and loved) Alain Fournier's brilliant novel at school, some years later I was excited to see the film was being shown with English subtitles at a specialist cinema. We made the effort to get along there, and we weren't disappointed.

It captured the dream-like, mysterious and slightly surreal quality of the novel very well. My wife, who wasn't already familiar with the novel, was enthralled by the movie.

The atmosphere of rural Provence at the turn of the century pervades the movie as it does the novel, too.

Like the book, a masterful exploration of the twilight world of youth and first love.

I'm not normally a lover of film romances, but come on, somebody - release this movie on DVD for us !

Although little known, a masterpiece of French movies!

[jcvpenna · 10/10 · 22 November 2007]

This film has also impressed me when I watched it for the first and only time. I was 18 and was spending my scholar vacations in my home town, Varginha, Brazil. Having nothing to do on a Wednesday evening, decided to go to the movies. What a great surprise! A beautiful photography coupled with a faithful-to-the-text screenplay and a competent direction produced an absolute masterpiece of the seventh art. The scenes of the young Meaulnes wandering through the forest at sunset and later getting into the party and finally encountering Yvonne de Galais are unforgettable. It is doubtless, an excellent adaptation of Alan-Fournier's novel. Indeed, it is incredible how can this masterpiece of the French movies be so unknown and so difficult to obtain...

Adding my voice

[emma-303 · 10/10 · 10 August 2007]

I too have been trying to get hold of this film for years, having seen it twice in London back in 1980, once in Oxford and once in Brighton. It still ranks in my top three films. I can only agree with the positive comments previously posted about the hypnotic visual qualities of this film, and the impact it made on my psyche. Not to mention the emotions - the last time I saw it with my father we both stood outside the cinema and cried for about twenty minutes.

I find it simply unfathomable why this beautiful, brilliant film has not been released onto DVD. If anyone can tell me how to get hold of a copy, I would be extremely grateful.

Subtitled Edition

[TheEnglishConfederate-1 · 10/10 · 29 November 2011]

This is a film beyond a rating - I saw it in a cinema in Brighton in 1971 and it was like having a mystical experience. In later years I have tried to find a copy on DVD with subtitles, as my mastery of French is crap, (like the Holy Grail, to be quested for but never attained). On the advice of a French friend I tried fnac with no luck and my enquiries as to whether they were aware of where I might find what I was looking for were always resolutely replied to in French. They did sell me the film on DVD but, of course, no subtitles. However, I have now obtained a VHS tape copy with subtitles which I bought via ebay. It was produced by a company called "Connoisseur Video Collection" in Los Angeles.

a fairly good film adaptation

[levi-ghyselinck · 8/10 · 16 November 2006]

The magnificent novel, on which this was based, was on the reading list when I was in college. Although France is a country neighbor of Belgium, I cannot say I am deeply familiar with its literature. But the work is truly a piece of art, a classic. I love it from the first page to the last. I have always had the impression the novel was more liked by boys and men, probably this is because of the evocation of a boy's childhood, and his amorous adventures. I could only find two film adaptations, both of which are in color ('67 and 2006). I was once told though the best version of this film is an older black and white one. I've been looking for this for ages, without success. I wonder if this film was ever released on video, anyway.

A unique film on a unique book

[clanciai · 10/10 · 14 October 2021]

The amazing thing about this film is that It has succeeded in living up to all the magic of the book and making it real on the screen. All the book is here, but not just the story and the characters, but all the feelings and emotions as well, the moods, the strange feeling of unreality at the wondrous party that seems to go on forever landing nowhere but in timelessness - the film has taken care of everything, and it is all convincing, the marvelous direction has captured all the mischiefs of the schoolboys, many of the best scenes are from that rural school, while the highlight is the same as that of the book - the great feast, where Augustin ends up by mere coincidence and meets his love, starting off the great love affair of the story which brings both success and tragedy; which wedding feast the director Jean-Gabriel Albicocco turns into a brilliant haze of wonders, just like in the book, reminding both of some of Fellini's masterworks and Agnes Varda's "Le bonheur" a few years earlier, while this is a more sincere account of love, sincerity is actually the word that sustains the whole story and film. The thing to observe about this central chapter of the book is, that the feast is supposed to be a most lavish and generous celebration of Frantz de Calais and his engagement, but he loses his bride, and instead Augustin Meaulnes finds Yvonne de Calais, so it actually becomes their feast of acquaintance. The actors and the music are also all superb all the way, and what is especially striking is Albicocco's use of close-ups, to enhance the moods, the human feeilings and emotions, to make them even more convincing and to bring out the souls in all their intensive pain and fervor of love; while melancholy ultimately is the dominating sentiment of the story and film. The author Henri Alain-Fournier was not allowed to write any more books as he fell as one of the first casualties of the first world war in its first month at the age of only twenty-eight. He was not made for war, he was made for eternity in letters, which he actually reached just by his one single novel.

magic

[Kirpianuscus · 25 October 2020]

If you know the book, the film is the fair answer to yours expectations. For performances, off course, for cinematography- just seductive- , for the grace and for the atmosphere - dreamy , delicate, seductive in profound sense. But, more important - it is magic. And this word has many senses in this case. Because it is just a film who you feel it as seed growing up, decades , in yourself , as memories. So, just special, memorable and so near to a personal experience.