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Les Égarés
2003 Drama / War
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Credits
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Director: André Téchiné
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Script: Gilles Perrault, Gilles Taurand, André Téchiné
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Photo: Agnès Godard
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Music: Philippe Sarde
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Cast: Emmanuelle Béart (Odile),
Gaspard Ulliel (Yvan),
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet (Philippe),
Clémence Meyer (Cathy),
Samuel Labarthe (Robert),
Jean Fornerod (Georges),
Eric Kreikenmayer (Le garde),
Nicholas Mead (Le soldat blesse),
Robert Eliott (Le jeune gendarme),
Nigel Hollidge (Le réfugie)
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Country: France
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Language: French
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Runtime: 95 min
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Aka: Strayed
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Summary
June 1940. As German troops invade France, a young widow, Odile, flees Paris with
her two young children, Philippe and Cathy. As they head south amid crowds of other
fugitives, they are attacked by a German plane. Although they survive the carnage,
Odile and her children lose all they have – their car, their possessions. However,
they make a new friend, a seventeen year old youth with a shaven head, Yvan. He
finds an abandoned house in the countryside which should provide a safe haven. Cut
off from the rest of the world, Odile, her children and Yvan learn to live together as
a family, although Yvan remains strangely reticent about his background…
Review
This engaging wartime drama from director André Téchiné is a fine
adaptation of the novel "Le Garçon aux yeux gris" Gilles Perrault. The achingly
beautiful photography of the rural setting belies the horror of the period in which the
story is set, although we get more than a glimpse of that horror in a shocking sequence
near the start of the film. Les Egarés
is not a film about war but about how people learn to cope with new situations and forge
new relationships in order to survive and fulfil basic human needs. Few directors
can match André Téchiné’s talent for exploring the interactions between
men and women, and for portraying this on screen with such sensitivity and depth.
The thoughtful, introspective performances from Emmanuelle Béart and Gaspard Ulliel
lend depth and a shade of darkness to the drama, making this one of Téchiné’s
most memorable and compelling films to date.
© James Travers 2006
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