Un roi sans divertissement

First I must pay homage to a fine actor, Claude Giraud, who is no longer with us. It is a sadness too for the cinema that he did not make enough films, especially of this quality. When this film came out in France 60 years ago it went against the modish fashions of the times, but unlike so many of those films it does not show a single wrinkle. Perhaps it is because it was a costume drama set in the 19th C, and this made it timeless, but personally I do not think so. Like all films like this with such magical ambiguity it cannot be explained. Giraud is a detective in uniform; a young man who is seemingly lost in the cold wintry landscape of a remote region in France. He is looking for a murderer and unexpectedly finds a truth about himself that he is unable to bear. The thread of a haunting song by Jacques Brel about why men are bored is as melancholy as the snowy region of relentless whiteness that appears to have no end. It accentuates the boredom that makes men murder without a hint of physical sexual desire, but solely motivated by the act of murder itself. Boredom is the thrill of human annihilation. Perhaps this is more relevant today than it was back then in the more optimistic nineteen-sixties. No spoilers, but a plea for this film to be rediscovered and to my knowledge it has never been shown in the UK, or the USA. A shame on us for preferring the fashionable to the essential.

"Un roi sans divertissement" is a highly unusual French film based on a book written by famous French writer Jean Giono who was born in Manosque,France.He also took part in the writing of the film.I got a chance to see this film when it was shown at an annual cinema event created for the restoration of old films "Rencontres Internationales du Cinéma de Vincennes" 2006 at Vincennes near Paris.A new restored version of this film was shown at Vincennes in the presence of its director François Leterrier.Although this film is a prolific murder mystery,the best thing about it is its depiction of rural life in France.Each character appears lost as if something has happened to the world around.We see how ordinary people go about their normal lives despite the fact that killings have occurred in their midst.It must be stated that "Un roi sans divertissement" succeeds because it shows more of human character then a simple murder mystery.We get to have a first hand vision of why people kill.The film has more or less remained faithful to the original book "Un roi sans divertissement". This is something which makes this film an outstanding work which is hard to classify in the realm of French cinema. This is one of the good reasons to watch this film as not many good novels have been made into good films.

I have just seen a french DVD copy of this film. It is one of the most interesting thrillers I've seen in along time. The visuals are astonishing and the dialogues are as sophisticated as you would expect from someone like Giono. The concept is fascinating: a policeman and a serial killer play cat and mouse in an isolated mountain village in Nineteenth century France. Unlike most thrillers, there is no psychological explanation of the killer's motives, but a metaphysical, existential reflection of the nature of murder, which can be considered highly original, and at least as immoral as De Quincey's thesis.

It is clear that this film was a heavy influence on Chistophe Gans' "Brotherhood of the wolf", although I would suggest that the unexpected (yet totally coherent) twist at the ending has been copied in many films such as Friedkin's "Cruising" (francophile smart ass!) or Von Trier's "Element of crime".

The mood was captivating. The setting was magnificent. But what the hell happened in the last twenty minutes!!!

I think that it's difficult translating idea-driven literature into two-hour long films. In this case, I felt as if I was watching a half-remembered dream and hearing a half-forgotten play. Doesn't work. That's why adapting Shakespeare to films is a futile exercise because Shakespeare is about words whereas a film is about images. You can either have words, or you can have images, but you certainly can't have both.

I was unfortunate to see this after I read the actual book, and it was a huge disappointment.. The story is different, the plot overly simplistic, most of the characters have lost their depth and complexity and charm. In some cases they have literally been changed. The entire message is spelled out all too clearly.

The weird thing is that the author Jean Giono actually wrote the script. I really don't understand what made him destroy his own book like this. Because it's a decent enough book, with some good points and and interesting story.

No. I didn't like it at all.