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Title: La nouvelle guerre des boutons (2011)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Jean Texier | ... | Lebrac |
| Ilona Bachelier | ... | Violette | |
| Clément Godefroy | ... | Petit Gibus | |
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Théophile Baquet | ... | Grand Gibus |
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Louis Dussol | ... | Bacaillé - Mayor's Kid |
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Harold Werner | ... | La Crique - Smart Kid |
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Nathan Parent | ... | Camus |
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Thomas Goldberg | ... | L'Aztec |
| Laetitia Casta | ... | Simone | |
| Guillaume Canet | ... | Paul, L'instituteur (the teacher) | |
| Kad Merad | ... | Le père Lebrac | |
| Gérard Jugnot | ... | Le père L'Aztec | |
| Marie Bunel | ... | La mère Lebrac | |
| François Morel | ... | Le père Bacaillé, Mayor | |
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Grégory Gatignol | ... | Brochard |
Occupied France; Lebrac leads a play war between two rival kid gangs, but a girl he likes, who's Jewish, is in danger of being discovered by local Nazi sympathisers. Lebrac and the village must now respond to the reality of what's happening.
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If you're as old as me and you grew up in a french-speaking environment, you've probably been affected in one way or another by Yve Robert's adaptation of Louis Pergaud's novel from 1962.
This new adaptation alternates the focus from the kid's perspective to its parallels in the grown-up's world. The time is now the mid-40's and the war of two groups of kids from two villages fades behind the gruesome reality of the Nazi occupation, persecution of the Jews and collaboration, thus turning the original story into a rather undramatic sideshow.
Since the late 60's at least, French cinema has been obsessed with the deep flesh wound left by the Nazi occupation in French society, which had torn the country into heroes and traitors. The idea to set the story in this context possibly sprung from the issue of a new, rising antisemitism, as the story now features a clandestine Jewish girl and her ruthless antagonist: the spineless french militiaman. Unfortunately, the new terror of antisemitism has long 'evolved' and has grown deaf to the sort of reasoning used in this movie, leaving its message only audible to those who already agree, which is a shame. What's left is a rather campy, at times charming but mostly predictable story that leaves no doubt about its message of humanism.
Finally, the screenplay is passable. A movie to watch if there's really nothing else to do. For a better experience: Yves Robert's cult classic's still the real deal.
BTW: Amazing how much the cult figure of the 1962 movie, "Petit Gibus", resembles the actor of this movie. Seems like the producers knew the movie couldn't live without resurrecting this charming character. Amazingly, they didn't go as far as to revive his signature phrase ("Si j'aurais su, j'aurais pas venu" - "If I'd known, I'd not come").