Le Vieux fusil (1975) - film review

It is 1944 and Germany is losing the war in Europe.  The allied forces have broken through on the Normandy front and the occupying troops have begun their retreat.  Meanwhile, Julien Dandieu continues with his work as a surgeon in the Périgord.  He has no interest in politics and treats his patients without any regard to their origins.  Concerned over the safety of his family, Julien instructs his wife Clara and their 13-year-old daughter to go to his large country château, to wait for the end of the war.  When he visits the château a few days later, Julien is outraged when he discovers that his loved ones have been brutally murdered by a handful of SS soldiers, who are still in the area.  A man who has hitherto devoted himself to saving lives, Julien now decides the time has come for him to jettison his scruples and become a killer...
© Willems Henri (Brussels, Belgium)

Le Vieux Fusil was one of the most notable French films of the 1970s, a gritty wartime action-drama that is an obvious homage to the classic American western, particularly High Noon (1952).   The film was fêted at the first ever Césars Ceremony in 1976, where it won the coveted Best Film award.  The film also won a César for its music (scored by François de Roubaix, his final film composition before his death in 1975) and another for Philippe Noiret in the Best Actor category.  Although a major box office success, the film provoked a strong reaction with its graphic ultra-violence, which was unusual for a mainstream French film at this time.  Its popularity amongst cinemagoers and critics provided a significant career boost to both its star (Noiret, giving arguably his best screen performance) and director Robert Enrico (who had previously been largely overlooked).

One of the reasons for the success of  Le Vieux Fusil is that, in typical Gallic fashion, it combines several genres into a surprisingly satisfying concoction.  It is far more than an action film or a war film, it is also a love story, and a rather moving one at that.  The trauma and acute sense of loss experienced by the central character, a humane French doctor (Noiret at his best), are emphasised, to devastating effect, by his recurring recollections of his all too perfect marriage to the perfect wife.

There is a stark visceral quality to this film that distinguishes it from virtually anything seen in French cinema prior to it.  It had something of the impact that Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch had on American cinema in the late 1960s, intentionally shocking audiences with a more realistic depiction of physical violence.  Armed with grenades and deadly flamethrowers, the Nazi villains of the piece are sadistic brutes who deserve what they get, and what they get is almost always pretty horrific.  There is even a suggestion of black comedy as Noiret goes around picking off the jackbooted thugs one by one, leading them to think that they are up against an army of partisans, rather than one slightly overweight middle-aged man with a grudge.

This is easily Robert Enrico’s most impressive film - imaginatively shot, directed with panache, and constructed in a way that delivers maximum impact.  Le Vieux Fusil is epic in its scale and yet it also has great intimacy.  The action sequences are slickly and convincingly realised, the kind you would expect to find in a Hollywood blockbuster.  And yet the performances - notably from Philippe Noiret and Romy Schneider - give the film both an unbearable tension and exquisite poignancy.   Cinematographically and stylistically, Le Vieux Fusil was years ahead of its time.  It precedes the big budget war films that would come out of French cinema in subsequent decades, most of which it surpasses in both its realism and its humanity.

© James Travers 2010

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