El viejo y el niño

"Le vieil homme et l'enfant " is the first of a series of four autobiographical movies about the director's salad days : for the record , the three other works are : "le pistonné" (1969) "le cinéma de papa" (1970) which became a common noun to designate the old (but great) old French cinema and "la première fois" (1976 )(starring Alain Cohen ,the young star of "le vieil homme" )

The first movie is undoubtly the best and it's sure easy to see why :It features Michel Simon ,one of the all-time greatest French actors ; by 1967,he had under his belt masterpieces by the dozen by the masters of the history of French cinema: Renoir, Duvivier,Carné ,Gance,Guitry,Decoin et al.

Once more, he shines in his part of a grumpy old man , with received ideas , who epitomizes the Marechal Pétain 's ideology in the occupied France; he hates the English,the Jews and the commies although he has never met one of these persons in his lifetime .

But the father (a very good Charles Denner ,who would reappear in "la première fois" ;in both middle movies,the part of the daddy was played by Yves Robert ) wants his son to be in security :in the country ,in the occupation days , French people had more food than in the cities and they stand less danger of being caught up in a round-up because they are Jews.

So the little boy must pretend he was brought up a catholic , he must know his "our father" prayer by heart: It's all the more important since the old country man is a limited anti-Semite ;so is the entourage ,particularly the schoolteacher who has her pupils sing the petainist anthem "Marechal Nous Voila " dutifully every morning.;and the Marechal's portrait is to be seen here there and everywhere .

A warning tells us it's "the occupied years seen through a child's eye" ,a child who does not understand the plight man's madness put them in.

The boy/old man relationship is extraordinary -and you'll shed a tear for their companion,the good old dog-It's double initiation rites: not only the boy has to discover an unknown milieu ,but he embarrasses his protector with naive (but relevant) questions about Jesus (so his daddy was a Jew, wasn't he?)which lead the narrow-minded person to question himself .He will see the others differently when the war is over.

This tale of a young Jewish boy sent into the French country side to avoid the possibility/likelihood of a round up of Jews by the Vichy Government parallels Claude Berri's personal experience, I believe. It says at the very beginning of the film that it is an experience seen in retrospect from the vantage point of the child. So, while it is sentimentalized as another commenter wrote on this site, that's what one might expect from a grown up looking back at the adventures of his eight or nine year old self. This is definitely NOT a straight forward narrative from an uninvolved scriptwriter/director. The "Grandfather" with whom the child is lodged hates Jews. He claims to be able to recognize them by their smell, their hooked noses, etc. The role of the Grandfather is brilliantly executed by Michel Simon. Filmed in the sixties in black and white, it still appears occasionally at Jewish film festivals under the title "The Two of Us." While you may despise the Grandfather's bigotry, he's also portrayed as loving toward the boy and lovable. The connection between the Grandfather and the boy, portrayed by Alain Cohen, is actually quite touching. A brief scene at the very end seems to indicate that the boy was reunited with his parents after the war but it passes by so quickly that I'd have to see it again in a stop frame to be sure that the faces of the parents are real and not imagined. Not a great movie, but definitely worth seeing.

The film tells a story inspired by real events during the Second World War and the story transcribed is really touching. The relationship between the old man and the child is one of the best I've seen in movies in general. Actor Michel Simon still does a fantastic job here, and I'm surprised he's not better known than that for the quality of his acting. In the film, he perfectly interprets the role of the old man from the countryside completely bewitched by the Nazi propaganda on the radio. The film clearly shows us that a man can be good while having ideas that are not good, this forces the person watching the film to question himself, should he feel compassion for this old man who takes good care of the child, despite the fact that he is an anti-Semite and that he can reject the latter if he finds out the truth?

And frankly the film makes the task complicated for us by showing us an endearing man. The relationship between the old man and the child, central in the film, is frankly a success and it gives us an enriching experience which does not often happen in films and it proves its quality.

In the occupied France by Nazi Regime , a kid :Alan Cohen is sent away from his family : Charles Denner to countryside , where he is cared by an elderly marriage . There Michael Simon protecting , teaching and loving deeply the little boy . Although, he has an anti-Jewish and extreme right-wing ideology , but he doesn't know the child results to be an unfortunate Jew.

A really sensitive film with an enjoyable relationship between the great Michael Simon and the intimate child . It is a very attractive film with terrific performances dealing with human relations with high sensibility , family love , and brooding message against racism. Here stands out the wonderful interpretation by the extremely touching Michael Simon , he is a complete show , he's really the sense of the film along with the little boy Alain Cohen , who is excellent as well , both of whom are magnificent . It displays an agreeable musical score by maestro George Deleure, as well as atmospheric cinematography in black and white by Jean Penzer . The motion picture was very well directed by notorious writer , producer and director Claude Berri.

This movie shows the power of the media in shaping the minds of simple folk, filling them with irrational prejudices. This shaping is what leads to the rise of totalitarian governments and to Islamic fascism. The best way to fight this, is to have the chance to live with and directly influence, by subtly challenging these prejudices with reason and logic. But the logician, in this case was a nine year old boy who lives in the country with an elderly couple as a way of surviving the final years of Nazi occupied France. The movie is very touching and meaningful. Filmed in black and white, which gives the movies a war time feel. The on-screen relationship between the old man and the young boy, which helps each to grow, is what good story telling is all about.