Tire-au-flanc 62 (1961)
Directed by Claude de Givray, François Truffaut

Film Review

Such was the success of his first feature as a director, Les 400 coups (1959), that François Truffaut generously offered to produce the first film by his assistant Claude de Givray, yet another screen adaptation of André Mouézy-Éon's popular stage play Tire-au-flanc.  Written on the eve of WWI, Mouézy-Éon's play had already been adapted several times for cinema - by Jean Renoir in 1928, Henry Wulschleger in 1933 and Fernand Rivers in 1950.  De Givray's version was to be livelier and included some unexpected excursions into the surreal, the best being a weird homage to the American film musical consisting of a ballet performed on an army assault course.  Oh, and it also includes Bernadette Lafont playing herself.

Truffaut not only stumped up the money, he also had a hand in the screenwriting and direction, and by all accounts it was a happy collaboration.  Unfortunately, enjoyably daft as the film is, it struggled to find an audience and its failure came as a severe blow to Truffaut's fledgling production company Les Films du Carrosse.  This kind of film - the 'garrison comedy' - was hugely popular in France in the 1930s and would be again in the 1970s, but in the early 1960s, perhaps due to public discontent with the Algerian War, there was evidently no interest.  After this setback, Truffaut decided that he would only produce his own films in future, although he did work with Claude de Givray on another film, Une grosse tête (1962), another notable flop.

Film Synopsis

It is with reluctance that Jean Lerat de la Grignotière, a young man of noble birth, sets out to accomplish his military service.  It is not long after his arrival at an army camp that he realises he is not well suited for military life.  By contrast, his family's chauffeur Joseph seems to take to it like a duck to water.  After being teased and bullied, Jean then has the misfortune of falling madly in love with Catherine, the daughter of a colonel who is determined to make his life in uniform a complete misery...