Ein Affe im Winter

I have read a recent interview with Belmondo, saying that the veteran Jean Gabin hate all that new wave french cinema when he was asked to do this movie with young Belmondo, who was, at that time, an actor who was working with the New Wave directors (Godard, Chabrol, Truffaut). But a solid friendship was born when the two men work together on that movie. In fact, the respect and this friendship seems to be very easy to see when we look at this charming movie. It's full of a sense of poetry. It's a movie about friendship, dreams, nostalgia, sadness between two men from different generations. It's also a movie about alcool, in a sense that the beatniks of that era refers to. It's also very well written. Gabin and Belmondo gives a very warm performance. You must see this wonderful movie.

Albert Quentin (Gabin) is running a small hotel in a coastal town in Normandy. He and his wife (Suzanne Flon)have settled down to a dull, peaceful existence heading into old age, when Fouquet (Belmondo), a young man gifted in flamenco dancing and getting very drunk, erupts into their lives. Soon all is turned upside-down, the teetotalling Quentin starts drinking again, and the town is treated to the most spectacular impromptu fireworks display that I can recall seeing in a movie. And that's not all... The acting is good all round: Gabin and Belmondo play off each other very well, Suzanne Flon strikes the right wistful and optimistic notes, and Noel Roquevert is very funny as the owner of a boutique where you can buy just about anything, including fireworks. Gabrielle Dorziat (of Les Parents terribles) has a nice cameo as the director of a girl's school who insists on speaking English.

Henri Verneuil was a very popular director from the 50's to the 70's; without being a real auteur he had a talent for pleasing the audience. Un singe en hiver follows Mélodie en sous-sol with its fine Gabin-Delon pairing, and gave me a lot of pleasure.

Un Singe en Hiver is famous for bringing together the France of the first half of the Century, symbolised by its greatest actor, Jean Gabin, and the greatest actor of the second half of the century, Jean Paul Belmondo. It not only brought them together but it created magic on the screen. The chemistry between Gabin and the kid Belmondo is incredible and carries this wonderful, yet simplistic, scenario to perfection.

The movie respects all three Greek units of creation, unity of action (it is the story of a man coming to get his daughter back, who incidentally meets an old man who looks a lot like the man he could become), unity of place, the whole movie takes place in the coastal town of Tigreville, Normandie, and unity of time, the whole movie takes places over 3 or 4 days.

The movie, written by legendary screenwriter Audiard, offers some of the best dialogues ever written for the big screen, it is at the same time a drama and a comedy. It is very much a French movie where, in essence, nothing happens, but a lot is actually being told. Every word carries its weight, every sentence unveils more about the story or the past of the two central characters played by Gabin and Belmondo.

Few movies can equally make you laugh, touch you and inspire you like Henry Vernieul's movie does. It is a story about good men who sometimes need to live a little and entertain themselves, enjoy life and dream a little.

It is unlikely we will ever get a movie like this again, it a jewel to treasure for the end of times.

In 1962, the year when Henri Verneuil made 'Un singe en hiver', Jean Gabin was 58 years old (younger than Tom Cruise is today!), He was already considered a 'sacred monster' of the French screen and had entered the final phase of his career, that of senatorial roles (including Commissioner Maigret but also the chief of the clan of the Sicilians). Jean-Paul Belmondo was 29 years old and was on the rise, propelled by the films of the French 'New Wave'. Today, both actors are legends, each in his own unique style, having in common the fact that their personalities have amplified their talent and dominated every film in which they appeared. Director Henri Verneuil (who was born in Armenia, his real name was Achod Malakian) has the great merit of bringing them together on screen in this film in which the roles fit them perfectly and the two understand well each other and collaborate wonderfully. It's not the only reason 'Un singe en hiver' is a movie worth watching or reviewing today.

Henri Verneuil was one of the directors who declared himself an adept of the so-called 'quality cinema', criticised and rejected by the directors of the New Wave. And yet, 'Un singe en hiver' demonstrates how relative the categorisations are, and to what extent good films belonging to the same period or film schools get together and find common ground or elements of dialogue. The script is an adaptation of a novel by a writer named Antoine Blondin. Unlike the directors of the New Wave, Verneuil does not leave the actors too much freedom to improvise. However, the feeling of authenticity is pronounced due to the dialogues written by Michel Audiard (an exceptional screenwriter to whom over a hundred French films owe their texts) and the fact that it was difficult and useless to direct the gestures and facial expressions of actors like Gabin and Belmondo. The music (excellent by the way - belongs to Michel Magne) accompanies the moods and marks the story, while the camera is handled with classical caution, which does not prevent us from admiring the quality of cinematography signed by Louis Page, using cinemascope and black and white film . Verneuil filmed very little in the studio for this film. The scenery is all natural, the town of Tigreville in the movie with its streets, cliffs and beaches is Villerville on the coast of Normandy, a coastal city that to this day celebrates the filming that took place there in the early '60s. The subject of the film itself talks about the freedom to be different, a theme dear to the New Wave, and the connection of heroes with alcohol immediately reminds viewers today of the excellent Danish film 'Another Round', this year's Academy Award winner for best film in a foreign language.

Watching Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo on screen together is a real treat. Gabin has been cast throughout his career only in a few comedy roles. The one in this movie is one of them and demonstrates how funny and profound he could be at the same time. Belmondo, on the contrary, creates one of the roles in which the charm of his personality hints at a background of humanity with dramatic nuances. Both actors have a lot of fun and it is clear that they feel good together, in this high-level meeting between two characters from different generations played by two great actors from different generations. Noel Roquevert and Paul Frankeur are also part of the cast, in supporting roles, building colourful and authentic characters in a only a few scenes. 'Un singe en hiver' is a tender and funny story, a 'good feeling' film of the '60s whose charm is only amplified by the passage of time.

What could I add more besides everything that has already been told? That's the only picture between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Gabin. Unfortunately. it was at this time the new generation vs the old one. You will have nearly the same scheme in 2009, with LE VIEIL HOMME ET SON CHIEN, where this time Belmondo will have a short sequence - too short for my own taste - with Jean Dujardin; Belmondo had this time the same position Gabin had with him more than forty five years earlier.

This movie: UN SINGE EN HIVER, is not only a film about drunk people and loneliness, absolutely not, but about the true meaning of life and friendship. And in this film, Jean Gabin plays a old sailor character, the nearly same he will have nine years later in LE DRAPEAU NOIR FLOTTE SUR LA MARMITE, a poignant movie too, even being a comedy written by Michel Audiard.