blom0344 I saw this on television some years after its cinematic release, more or less by chance. It took all the time up until Schindler's List before I witnessed such realistic violence again. This film is part love story and part Rambo and though cleverly filmed and staged it is a bit of a bewildering experience. It took weeks to shake off the image of the grizzly and sadistic way Romy Schneider met her end. I'm sure these kind of atrocities took place in occupied Europe,but it is another matter of having to put up with it on the screen. Noiret going Rambo style against the Germans is thrilling though a bit over-the-top. Lots of style, well acted, but too grizzly for me.

J_J_Gittes I just watched Le vieux fusil by Robert Enrico in 35mm at the cinema (unfortunately dubbed into German) and it was a hell of a strange film. Philippe Noiret is great in the lead role, though totally unbelievable. First he marries Romy Schneider, and then he kills a dozen trained German soldiers one after the other single-handedly. The whole film basically knows only one sombre mood, and doesn't really add any (melo)drama to what is happening. Incredibly, this film won a César for best French film of the year (what the heck!? - in a year where Zulawski's L'important c'est d'aimer was eligible!!!) and was nominated for numerous more. While it was an interesting and worthwhile film, I can't possibly see why this Rambo-type revenge story was considered so great/important at the time it was made. At least I might have become a Noiret-fan through this. The film is all about Noiret, and Romy is only there as eye-candy or to explain the emotional turmoil of the lead character. She has to play her usual „slutty" role of a person with bipolar disorder and I can't help but wonder why she regularly chose those similar roles. Despite being a great actress, Enrico really doesn't give her much to work with (he is clearly no Zulawski...) but maybe she was eager to do a more light-hearted role after her phenomenal (and deservingly) César-winning performance in L'important c'est d'aimer. I watched the edited version that was released to German theaters in the 70s and was missing at least the full scene of Romy's death. Will I watch more Enrico? Possibly. Am I intrigued? Yes. But is this really a remarkable film? I don't quite think so. Nevertheless very much worth seeing because of its utterly peculiar and bizarre vibe.

writers_reign 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.

amorim-3 One of the best "war" films from the french cinema. The cruelty and the feelings are perfectly depicted Unforgettable the scene where Philippe Noiret knows what happened to his wife and daughter. The developing of the action is not as usual since the good old days are not in the beginning of the movie, but in the middle via the projection of home movies by the German soldiers, who murdered the two women. The systematic battle between the doctor and several soldiers,in a crescendo of violence that takes place in a "huis clos" is an example of directing and editing. The finale is like a balloon that is out of gas, the climax was attained and one more the leading actor shows how not to act to show true feelings.