Fait d'hiver

This is the last film of Robert Enrico, the most popular film director from the sixties and seventies; check his filmography: LES AVENTURIERS, LES GRANDES GUEULES, LE VIEUX FUSIL. In this social drama, tragic and gloomy plot, you may find some accents, some elements that you already had in the sixties, seventies, Enrico's highlight period. For instance the music score that evokes westerns,as you had in LES GRANDES GUEULES. And it takes place in the countryside settings that Enrico monitored very well, all long his career. Charles Berling is excellent and gripping in this desperate character. Unfortunately inspired from actual events. And, as in LE VIEUX FUSIL, another Robert Enrico's film, the most famous one, the lead character fights alone against his opponents with an old fashioned gun.

1970 : Louis Riquier, divorced, veteran of algeria war, decides not to let his children go back to their mother house. Two of his children are quite happy, the third one is upset, she don't wants her father to go stupid again (it's not the first time) and goes home by night. The police (more precisely the "gendarmes" - a millitary police present everywhere in france) try to be very understanding. Their commandant was Louis Riquier's chief at war and he knows well that this man doesn't want to hurt anybody. The story turns bad when the under siege father accidently kills a policeman. Every body knows the story has to end, but the death of this policeman doesn't let lots of chance for a happy ending : Louis understands he will have to go to jail if he surrenders, so he tries to stay where he is... (I won't tell the end) This movie is quite fair, with suspense, good acting... The author did famous movies like "le vieux fusil" or "les grandes gueules". This movie is his very last, not his best, but it's worth seeing it.