War of the Buttons

1963 ""

War of the Buttons

7.4 | 1h30m | en | Drama

For generations, two rival French villages, Longueverne and Velrans, have been at war. But this is no ordinary conflict, for the on-going hostilities are between two armies of young schoolboys. When he is beaten by his father for having lost his buttons, the leader of the Longueverne army, Lebrac, has an idea which will give his side the advantage: next time, he and his brave soldiers will go in battle without their clothes...

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7.4 | 1h30m | en | Drama , Comedy | More Info

Released: December. 18,1963 | Released Producted By: Les Productions de la Guéville , Country: France Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:

Synopsis

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Cast

Jacques Dufilho , Michel Galabru , Michèle Méritz

Director

Pierre-Louis Thévenet

Producted By

Les Productions de la Guéville ,

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Trailers & Images

Cast

Jacques Dufilho

as L'Aztec's father

Above the Clouds Nailcruncher L'homme qui n'était pas là Voglia di Volare Nosferatu the Vampyre Rookies Run Amok Fantasia chez les ploucs Lady L The Visit

Michel Galabru

as Bacaillé's father

Mumu Cineman Little Nicholas Welcome to the Sticks Final Arrangements Silence of the Sea The Car Keys Raining Cats and Frogs Uranus

Michèle Méritz

as L'Aztec's mother

War of the Buttons The Big Risk Le Beau Serge

Reviews

pauls-room From the moment José Berghmans wonderful music loudly bursts through the opening credits, and we see the French countryside spread out before us, the scene is set for some comedic kid's action. And the film doesn't fail in its presentation of kid's war games as adventures of childhood than the adult realities. Full of French flavour and populated with excitable adults and children, it's a hilarious picture of how children play together. The penalty for being captured is the loss of all your buttons and the method of one gang to avoid this is a hoot! I watched it without sub-titles and although I don't speak French, it still had me in fits of laughter. Petit Gibus is so funny when, plied with Calvados, he gets very drunk and very merry. This is a film that belies the fact that films need computer graphics and violence to be watchable. This film recalls an era when simples games and adventures were all that were needed to fill your days.

MarioB French director are 90 % of the time great for movies with children, because children looks and sounds like real children, not adults in the bodies of childs. I remember seeing this one when I was a kid in the sixties. Years later, I saw it with my adult eyes and the impressions are the same : this is really a film about children! Adults, here, all looks like people from another planet. There are lots a funny gags and we also have the chance to see a forbiddon rural France, very rustic and in relation with nature. Some English director make a remake in the 1990's, but this is the original. A delight!

elfqueen The war of the buttons is one of those films that warms the cockles even at a tender age (where such nostalgic sentimentality like cocklewarming is not even a concept yet). The artful description of human nature at its early stages, the heartache of being young, the struggle of empowering onself and of feeling powerless in a world dominated by grown-up violence and/or indifference is so tender, so enchanting that it should be compulsory on school curricula, at least for students of French. Seeing this film makes me yearn for the French countryside, it makes me laugh, it makes me happy, it makes me want to be child and to have a child of my own. And it also moves me to tears, and makes me remember the agonies of childhood. In short, this film is true art in the old philosophical sense: it produces emotion, true emotion, it depicts beauty and it involves its audience in thorough katharsis. A gem.

Wrangler A real delight. Wistfully nostalgic for the innocence and inspired creativity of childhood. Hilarious in parts. Why is this such an obscure film?