Le Grand Meaulnes (1967)
Directed by Jean-Gabriel Albicocco

Film Review

I first saw this wonderful film in 1971 in London.  As a very impressionable and probably quite lonely young man I left the Mayfair arthouse with my first tears for 10 years.  I saw it again on TV a couple of years later and was even more moved because I knew what was coming !

God bless the internet in that I have recently obtained the  French language un-subtitled version.  Do you know what - it's lost none of its mesmeric power and it's really difficult to believe that the young director and screenwriter Jean Gabriel Albicocco produced nothing else of note in his career.

Le Grand Meaulnes is a faithful adaptation of the brilliant Alain-Fournier novel of the same name.  It is a searing evocation of lost love and lost innocence.  The camerawork in the flashback sequences evokes raw emotion and some kind of ultimate psychedelic experience which contrast wonderfully with the everyday school scenes which are real and powerful.

If you've ever been in love you must see this film.  I felt that my heart had been uplifted into the sky and ripped out and discarded within 100 minutes.  The acting is powerful and affecting and if you don't fall for Yvonne or Augustin you've lost your love mojo and you need therapy.

It is the powerful direction coupled with the haunting soundtrack that combine to lift this piece of art to such great heights.  It's done this to me and I'm a cynical 50 plus year-old who doesn't speak French,

Do yourself a favour - open your mind and a bottle of wine, and press the start button.  This is just one of those happy moments when a chance combination of story, director and cast falls into place and achieves greatness.  I am just grateful that I've experienced it.

Film Synopsis

One night, in the course of a strange party that takes place at a remote residence lost in the woods of Sologne, Augustin Meaulnes encounters Yvonne de Galais and immediately falls in love with her, so entranced is he by her exquisite beauty.  In the days that follow, Augustin tries in vain to find the mysterious chateau, hoping to catch another glimpse of the enchanting Yvonne.  All that remains is a marvellous memory of a fantastic dream...