Crin blanc : le cheval sauvage

Beautiful and touching movies – both filmed with a minimum of dialogue. 'The Red Balloon' takes place in Paris in the mid-fifties and has humour and tenderness. The Paris of the 1950's does not quite look a beautiful as it does today – it looks a little stodgy and war-torn.

Both these were filmed in the mid-fifties and both stand well the test of time. The sound-score in each is exquisite and enhances the tone of both movies.

The second movie on this DVD is the 'White Mane' filmed in the south of France in the Camargue region. If you love horses this is a must. I am only an amateur fan but was highly impressed.

Both these films by Albert Lamorisse are available on the same DVD. They are each about 35 minutes in length and well worth the watch. They do remind me of the best Disney movies I use to watch as a child.

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.

This comment will be a little personal: I was 6 or 7 years old when I went for the first time to a cinema and Crin Blanc was was then the first film I saw on a large cinema screen (at home we got our first television set at the beginning of the sixties). As far as I can remember it was a nice story of a boy and a wild horse in the Camargue.The director was Albert Lamorisse and another important name: Edmond Séchan, the director of photography of this film. Very beautiful images of horses and the landscapes of the Camargue.

Every French pupil of the sixties or even the seventies knows "Crin-Blanc",one of the major works of Albert Lamorisse who used to make films aimed at the children's market: "Bim Le Petit Ane" "Le Voyage en Ballon" and "le Ballon Rouge" are of the same kind.The French critic remains tepid as far as they are concerned,but abroad all are praised as masterpieces of moving poetry.

Let's take the golden middle:masterpieces,there are certainly not,but representative of an era ,the era of Doisneau's photographs and pupils in grey overall,they certainly are.

Whereas "le Ballon Rouge " depicted a graying urban landscape,"Crin-Blanc" takes place in Camargue with its wild horses ,including ,the wildest of them all,"Crin-Blanc ".But the two movies have the same conclusion: both Folco and Pascal cannot live in the men's world and both escape from their world,one flew over Paris with his magic balloon and the other returned to the (new christening?) waters of the river with his mythical horse.

Not quite as great as The Red Balloon and not as well-known, but White Mane is almost as good and does deserve to be better known than it is. It is a gorgeous-looking film, with the marshlands being both handsome and austere(emphasising the wildness of the two main characters and their adventures) and the black and white photography really is some of the best I've ever seen. White Mane is sensitively scored with a lovely whimsical tone, while the narration is thoughtfully written and poetic, telling the story without trying to explain too much. White Mane has a very sweet and touching story, the wonder of childhood is really charmingly depicted and the film shows also the beauty of nature that will leave one inspired. What was also appealing was the relationship between the boy and the horse which is what anchors the film, a familiar idea but you really do feel the friendship and love between the two. The pacing is deliberate but that said White Mane never came across as dull personally, the relationship between the boy and the horse, the way the film looked and how easy it was to get into the story and its emotions were utterly transfixing. Albert Lamorisse's direction is sensitive and in keeping with White Mane's poetic tone and the acting is great, especially from Alain Emery. He looked adorable and gives a spirited and touching performance, there are scenes where he doesn't say a word but his body language, eyes and face are genuinely telling throughout. The horse was clearly well-trained as well, and the chemistry between the two of them was magic. All in all, immensely charming and beautiful but also sadly criminally underrated. The Red Balloon is slightly better but if you loved that film you will find a huge amount to love about White Mane. 10/10 Bethany Cox