french films > The Vanishing Corporal

The Vanishing Corporal

The Vanishing Corporal

Visitor's mark: * * * * *

cast: Jean-Pierre Cassel, Claude Brasseur, Claude Rich, Jean Carmet

year: 1962

colour: no

certificate:

director: Jean Renoir

runtime: 106

An upper-class corporal from Paris is captured by the Germans when they invade France in 1940. Assisted and accompanied by characters as diverse as morose the corporal tries to escape from prison camps, sometimes making it a few yards, sometimes reaching the French border.

COMMENTS:

22/11/2012 - nicholasl said : mark * * * * *

It's a great film. Even watching it on Canada's French-language Ontario channel, without the benefit of subtitles, gives you an epic sense of humanity at its best and worst: funny, sad and at times tragic. The
Germans are not demonized either, although it is made clear that they are the enemy and can be ruthless, even when they're being mocked. Refreshingly free of cliche, this movie ought tobe better known than it is. Move over, 'The Great Escape'!

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