Normandie - Njemen

A French-Russian co-production ,dedicated to the brave French fighter pilots who helped the Russian ones in 1942.

The beginning of the movie is not to be missed:the Nazis seem to have the upper hands,and the French army,who was defeated ,has to obey "the old man" (Pétain)and to superiors who call their subordinates deserters if they rebel against them .The officer is more interested in his men's slovenly appearance than any resistance .

That's why some pilots ,often very Young (one of them has not turned twenty),disgusted by their insincerity,join,after many difficulties,the Russian air force.

Jean Dréville avoids a story like tale,he only shows the brotherhood and the friendship of these men of two nations,struggling against their common enemy: Nazism.All the soldiers keep their first language (there is an interpreter),which shows respect for the audience .But they do understand one another:their smiles,the wistful Russian songs .Even if accidents happen (a Russian pilot shot down by a French(Pierre Trabaud) ),they hope for the best .

Remarkable scenes:

-The Russian playing a sad tune on his accordion;suddenly his playing becomes joyful and catchy: a pilot ,they thought was killed in action ,has reappeared ;beaming,he writes his name again on the blackboard with a proud 1 (he shot down a German plane)

-A pilot (Georges Rivière)wants to share the things owned by a missing man:his mates' reactions ;is he right?is he wrong?

I do not know the Russian actors,but the French ones are familiar faces :there 's no real star ,but they were all talented supporting thespians in many movies (besides Trabaud and Rivière,one can mention André Oumansky,Marc Cassot (as the commander),Gianni Esposito (as a pacifist schoolteacher ,but Goebbels's sentence "when I hear the word culture,I reach for my gun" made him a fighter pilot).

Dreville's follow-up movie was a super production "La Fayette":the French marquis coming to the Americans' rescue this time!and they say Dreville was not an auteur!

This is the dramatization of a true story, suspenseful action pact and often tragic. The french pilots called their squadron "Normandy Njemen". The french pilots who volunteered, where from different walks of life, and had different motives. Most commonly, they where anti-fascist.They also felt betrayed by the Vichy Government for brokering a treaty with the Nazis. They wanted to fight the Nazis. First they had to get out of the fascist controlled countries, and enter Russia via neutral states. Used to french fighter planes, they had to learn on Russian ones. If they overcame the first two daunting task's, they where pitted against the German fighter aces, like Galland and Hartmann. Made in the sixties, the battles scenes look kind of dated: Black & White, not as sophisticated as the BATTLE OF Britain, but as good "DER STERN VON AFRIKA". This statement concerns the technical aspect only, the story actually is much more moving than the other two movies I just mentioned.