Un singe en hiver

I have read a recent interview with Belmondo, saying that the veteran Jean Gabin hate all that new wave french cinema when he was asked to do this movie with young Belmondo, who was, at that time, an actor who was working with the New Wave directors (Godard, Chabrol, Truffaut). But a solid friendship was born when the two men work together on that movie. In fact, the respect and this friendship seems to be very easy to see when we look at this charming movie. It's full of a sense of poetry. It's a movie about friendship, dreams, nostalgia, sadness between two men from different generations. It's also a movie about alcool, in a sense that the beatniks of that era refers to. It's also very well written. Gabin and Belmondo gives a very warm performance. You must see this wonderful movie.

Un Singe en Hiver is famous for bringing together the France of the first half of the Century, symbolised by its greatest actor, Jean Gabin, and the greatest actor of the second half of the century, Jean Paul Belmondo. It not only brought them together but it created magic on the screen. The chemistry between Gabin and the kid Belmondo is incredible and carries this wonderful, yet simplistic, scenario to perfection.

The movie respects all three Greek units of creation, unity of action (it is the story of a man coming to get his daughter back, who incidentally meets an old man who looks a lot like the man he could become), unity of place, the whole movie takes place in the coastal town of Tigreville, Normandie, and unity of time, the whole movie takes places over 3 or 4 days.

The movie, written by legendary screenwriter Audiard, offers some of the best dialogues ever written for the big screen, it is at the same time a drama and a comedy. It is very much a French movie where, in essence, nothing happens, but a lot is actually being told. Every word carries its weight, every sentence unveils more about the story or the past of the two central characters played by Gabin and Belmondo.

Few movies can equally make you laugh, touch you and inspire you like Henry Vernieul's movie does. It is a story about good men who sometimes need to live a little and entertain themselves, enjoy life and dream a little.

It is unlikely we will ever get a movie like this again, it a jewel to treasure for the end of times.

French films often focus on things that are really quite different from the English/American scene. They're a lot about dialog, attitude, and big(mouthed) iconic protagonists - often less about an obvious moral at the end. This film is neither really a comedy nor a drama, it's like that perfect nuance between the two and borrows from both in a very typically French kind of cynical/blasé way.

Instead of a great big moral as most films around the world usually have which they culminate towards, this one has rather a theme that is omnipresent throughout the developments. It's more like an ongoing element of both lead characters' conscience, or rather subconscious - as the synopsis states: the desire to travel. That irresistible urge to discover or rather rediscover a place exotic, festive and foreign; foreign to the boring old daily, routine life.

As referenced in the first line of this review, French films are best when the dialog is best and this one has the right quality for the ambitions of the story and Gabin and Belmondo both do a very good job, Gabin especially as he seems to have been that very character at some point in his life, understands him so well. Such lines as (speaking to his wife, -paraphrasing): "Suzanne tu n'as que des qualités, mais tu m'emmerdes !" - so French in spirit, and a sentence so heavy with significance as it pertains to the sheltered, redundant gentrified "real" life.

Interesting, well acted out, very good dialog, very well paced and filled up: 7.5/10. My own criticism: perhaps the "dream life" is hinted at too much where the film settles for carrying out the events in the plot while not further exploring that strong element of abstract emotion that remains merely underlying and implied.

A splendid movie for everyone who had a dream and/or came back from it. About dream, excess, life, boredom, and going beyond what life gives you. And alcohol. To watch.

The actors are splendid, both at the best of their style, Gabin, an established, grounded man with a vision, Belmondo as a bold and hot-tempered, troubled young man. Suzanne Flon, Paul Frankeur and Noel Roquevert also strongly support the scenario in their 2nd roles.

The dialogues by Michel Audiard are just splendid. One liners that make you laugh and think beyond the action and that reflect on yourself.

It's a movie for people who dream further.

Its lead virtue is to be more than a good comedy. a film about life. and its choices. about two men, in Tigreville. and about the result of that meeting who could change everything. a film about decisions, past strangers and...Spain. nothing new, but all useful in deep sense. because it is a simple film. about simple people. and about the fundamental meanings of existence. and sure, a fine motif for see it remains the presence of Gabin and Belmondo and their almost total seductive performances.