Crin blanc : le cheval sauvage

Although this was an award-winning French film that won honors as Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival, there's really nothing that memorable about this B&W odyssey about a wild stallion and a small boy who tames it.

The background music is pleasant, the photography is pleasing enough and the boy is a natural actor, but the story seems to be lacking something in spirit and seems rather bland by the time it winds up its tale in 43 minutes with a rather ambiguous ending.

ALAIN EMERY is the boy, Falco, who befriends a white stallion in Camarque, arid lands in the south of France, much to the displeasure of a group of men who were trying to capture the animal themselves. Once the horse accepts him as a rider, he spends the rest of the film trying to avoid capture by the men on horseback who chase the boy and the horse all over the dunes and finally the beach, where boy and horse ride off into the waves.

That's the story. Whether it captures your attention completely or not is debatable, but it is definitely well made and worth seeing at least once.

Trivia note: The main page at IMDb specifies that the film was photographed in Eastman Color but the print shown on TCM was in black and white.

Albert Lamorisse is mostly known for his beloved classic 'The Red Balloon', but before that he made this 'White Mane', which is almost as good. Although 'White Mane' is not absolutely perfect, it certainly is and feels authentic. I could say this is a must for anyone who loves horses. It is, that I can't deny. But in my book one doesn't necessarily have to love horses to enjoy this. It's all a matter of liking this sort of films.

This short film is about a wild stallion in a wild region of France and his friendship with a fearless and adventurous young boy. The film tells how they meet and how they develop their friendship. This boy becomes the only human really worthy of the stallion's trust.

The beauty of the cinematography is one of the best things about this. What we see is pure and natural, a "wilder" France not often seen in movies (that is, as far as I know). The boy is wonderfully portrayed by Alain Emery. The boy and the stallion have a perfect chemistry.

This should definitely be on Top 250.

I first saw this exquisite film in 1968 at an Opus Dei film night ! when my parents were palming me off to these mad institutionalized weirdos as some sort of babysitting service for teens. Fortunately the imagery of this glorious film lasted longer the their brutal effects... mainly because this truly great film is about the ineffectiveness of brutality on a smart strong sensitive teen. Such is the impact of this breathtaking perfect children's film that I actually have been yearning, quietly searching for CRIN BLANC for over 40 years ......and I have been lucky enough to re discover it again. On DVD in spectacular Black and White. I shall simply put my reaction to it as this: What I felt in my head and heart is what I hope I experience one day as I die. In fact as I die I simply want to drift off into 40 blissful minutes of the vision and emotion this film evokes. It is perfect. The sight of escaping on a white stallion into the sea after being pursued by idiots who want to trap me and the loving beast of life is what this film imparts on the viewer. For those who see this film as 'nothing' or a 'good way to kill 40 minutes'... well, have another hamburger and grab a coke and go to a multiplex and see a Nicholas Cage CGI fest. But leave CRIN BLANC to the poets of the world who know what it is to die intact with the love of freedom and beauty. My life is actually now complete now that I have rediscovered CRIN BLANC. There is nothing else in moviedom more rewarding, exquisite and emotionally fulfilling than experiencing this film. If you have an ounce of poetry in you or yearning for everything this planet is and stands for... well it is captured in CRIN BLANC. If you see it and know what I am imparting to you well then you get it. CRIN BLANC is what it is like to die satisfied.CRIN BLANC is our life in a children's parable.

In the mid-fifties, Albert Lamorisse produced two beautiful, but strangely distant films, "The RedBalloon" and "White Mane". "Red Balloon" has been available and remained somewhat popular, while "White Mane" all but disappeared. Its re-emergence is welcome, as it offers intensely compelling black and white imagery, cinematography that is a cross between Ansel Adams and Atget, in its rich tones, dramatic light, and epic feel.

Red Balloon, offers an interesting contrast. Paris is all muted earth tones and grays, with the balloons offering the only vivid colors. It is also interesting to remember that World War II was less than a decade earlier.

Little Pascal, the director's son, is seen in both films, always appealing never "cute", but somehow distant. We don't really know him except as "the little boy".

The two films are wonderful artifacts from a time when film was more art than marketing.

A young pre-teen is protective of a wild horse that is the target of horse traders in Albert Lamorisse's exquisite black and white film White Mane. The short 40-minute film, winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1953, preceded the director's masterpiece The Red Balloon by three years but is as simple, haunting and magical, telling a story of friendship and love that is filled with wonder and the innocence of a child's imagination. The film is set in the Camargue region in the southwest of France where marshes and barren landscapes convey a sense both of awe-inspiring beauty and of hardship and unexpected danger.

The horse, known as White Mane, though small is not weak and stands out for his fierce independence and disdain of man. He loves to run with the pack and refuses to be reigned in and controlled by the local ranchers who react to his willfulness with growing impatience and confusion. The boy, a fisherman named Folco (Alain Emery), lives close by in a small fishing village with his grandfather and younger brother (played by Pascal Lamorisse, the director's son who later played the boy in The Red Balloon) and watches the struggles of the men trying to tame the wild horse.

Folco, though small and slender, has many of the defiant qualities of the horse but is also gentle and very loving. His desire is not only to protect White Mane from the ranchers but to tame him and claim him as his own and the film explores their relationship which develops into one of friendship and mutual trust. One of the outstanding sequences in the film is the fight between White Mane and another stallion for leadership of the herd. Another great scene is when Folco lassos the horse who, startled, runs off, dragging the boy behind him through the mud. At last, the horse stops running and looks back at the mud-covered little boy as the two sense an immediate and intimate connection.

The ending is dark, perhaps too dark for many children, demanding of them a complexity that they perhaps are incapable of at a tender age. Yet the film does not patronize, introducing the viewer to the notion that standing up for what is right regardless of the outcome is one of the most important things in life and does not depend on age or strength. The poetic narration, delivered by Jean-Pierre Grenier and co-written by the acclaimed author and film critic James Agee, adds an extra dimension of sensitivity to the film that the viewer, whether child or adult, can immediately respond to. White Mane is a truly gorgeous film that will remain with you.