Derborence (1985)
Directed by Francis Reusser

Film Review

The best thing about this tepid melodrama is its stunning photography of the Swiss Alps setting.  The production team fails to endow the film's fairytale-like storyline with much in the way of charm or poetry, and for the most part the film is let down by a weak script and some pretty unconvincing acting.  Bruno Cremer (now known as French television's best Maigret) does what he can to live the film above the mediocre, but engaging though his performance is, the mediocre script does little to make his character more than a vague archetype. Langourous and at times unbearably static, Derborence does at least reward with the sublime quality of its cinematography.

Film Synopsis

Thérèse could not be happier when Antoine, an alpine farmer, agreed to take her as his wife.  The couple have been married only a few months before disaster strikes.  By now, Thérèse is used to her husband being away from home for days at a time, but it has been two weeks since he set off up the steep mountain slopes in the company of his aged friend Séraphin.  Thérèse's fears for her husband's safety turn out to be amply justified.  Caught in a massive avalanche, Antoine and Séraphin will almost certainly have perished under a mass of fallen rock.  This news is badly received by Thérèse, made worse by the fact that she has just learned she is pregnant.  The weeks that follow are unbearable and Thérèse wonders how she is going to cope.  Then, without any forewarning, Antoine suddenly reappears after an absence of two months.  He appears to be unharmed but he is badly shaken by the disappearance of his old friend.  Antoine reasons that because he was spared by the avalanche, then Séraphin must also still be alive.  Without delay, and ignoring his wife's concerns, the farmer begins his frantic search to find his friend...