Le combat dans l'île

As Cavalier's debut not despicable picture mixing political issues and dramatic tragic drama, in a slow pace by the way, the story should be concise, offer more practicality instead some useful boring sequences, though don't expect see an eloquent Romy Schneider, she plays Anne a disturbed girl, going to nowhere, Trintignant plays Clement a rich son of great French industrialist who makes part of a right-wind terrorist cell, cover up by Hunting private club leading by a veteran terrorist Serge (Pierre Asso) they target are left-wing politicians and reds, they first target is a famous politician that end up in a flop, Clement is betrayed by Serge, meanwhile he and Anne hidden at Paul's house, (Henri Serre) actually a blood brothers when they were teenagers, Clement decides chase Serge to kill him, Anne stays there for a while, although both in absolute aloneness will getting closing each other, Clement finds Serge in a faraway Argentina, got his revenge and get back, now faces the unexpected truth, Anne is pregnancy of Paul, spurned Clement demands a duel at Island at river Senne, according Clement Paul broken the pact made on their childhood, dispersive the picture seems lost the central point often, overall a decent presentation!!!

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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25

As a winter of discontent ends in Paris, militaristic Jean-Louis Trintignant (as Clement Lesser) plans to assassinate a unionist politician. When his clandestine "hunting club" fails to achieve success, Mr. Trintignant must hide from authorities. He and alluring wife Romy Schneider (as Anne) take refuge with Trintignant's childhood chum Henri Serre (as Paul). Trintignant leaves to square things with former cohort Pierre Asso (as Serge) while Ms. Schneider resumes her (stage) acting career. Absent her husband, Schneider falls into Mr. Serre's bed. Then, Trintignant returns and wants to get combative...

This was the first feature from director Alain Cavalier, here assisted by Louis Malle. The leading men are meant to represent two extreme sides of the political aisle - commonly called right-wing (tending toward fascism in the extreme) and left-wing (tending toward communism in the extreme). Unfortunately, the film does not relay much of the men's friendship; we do not care that they become rivals. Most interesting is the relationship between Trintignant and Schneider, which may border (at least) on sadomasochism. There is good black-and-white photography by Pierre Lhomme, especially the location scenes.

****** Le combat dans l'ile (8/17/62) Alain Cavalier ~ Romy Schneider, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Henri Serre, Pierre Asso

In a France frightened by the rise of the far right a couple of weeks ago ,"le combat dans l'ile" seen today has a contemporary feel.The hero,Clément,played with talent by a deadpan Jean-Louis Trintignant,is a rich young man,who severs all links with his family ,except his wife Anne (Romy Schneider)and becomes part of an extremist group,which recalls the O.A.S..Their short-sighted philosophy considers that Occident is in jeopardy because of the socialists and the commies and they multiply the assassination attempts.Betrayed by his instructor,Serge takes refuge in his old friend Paul's house (Henri Serre),a socialist and a pacifist.

Shot in black and white ,with beautiful forest landscapes,this is an overlooked movie.Overshadowed by the new wave movies that were released by the dozen at the time,it could not appeal to the "conventional" audience either.Its slow pace,its rather risqué subject may have repelled most of the people.But it's about time to restore it to public favor.The story may be a fight between two men for a woman;but it is also the clash between two ideologies.

It proves that Romy Schneider was a great actress well before her heyday in the seventies:here,she definitively relinquishes her former insipid roles,the likes of Sissi to a modern woman.Henri Serre,who was Jim in Truffaut's "jules and Jim" gives a heartfelt and sensitive performance.Too bad he fell into oblivion soon after it.

Alain Cavalier started strongly with "le combat dans l'île" ,continued in the same vein with "l'insoumis" (1964)(starring Alain Delon and Léa Massari),but was disappointing afterward.Only "un étrange voyage" (1980) and "le plein de super"(1975)

are interesting.But "Therèse" redeemed him !

The only weak point of the casting is Romy Schneider who is slightly over-acting. Beautiful B&W camera work and music. Directing work is directly influenced by Robert Bresson (LES DAMES DU BOIS DE BOULOGNE ; UN CONDAMNE A MORT S'EST ECHAPPÉ) & Louis Malle (ASCENSEUR POUR L'ÉCHAFAUD ; LE FEU FOLLET) : distant, "fire under the ice" style, sharp, precise, contained. The story is quite intelligent (an right-wing anti-communist idealist militant betrayed by his chief after a political assassination attempt + love story in which Romy Schneider is torn apart between him and his left-wing childhood friend : they will "fight in the island" to death, using Walther P-38 pistols) and time treatment managed by the editing work is superior art. One of the best movies made in France by the 1960's but it is necessary, when screening it, to not miss one sequence, even a short one, in order to be able to enjoy the subtle atmosphere construction. To be fully understood, this movie requires you to be aware of the political situation of France at that time.

This first feature film directed by Alain Cavalier is an atmospheric brooder. The plot is not entirely convincing, but the main motivations for making the film seem to have been to explore political extremism, social paranoia, and mood for its own sake. The film was made in the immediate aftermath of the Coup d'Alger of April, 1961, namely the rebellion against de Gaulle's Government headed by General Raoul Salan, the French military chief in Algeria, and his three co-conspirators. The plan was to have included a coup in Paris itself, but that did not come off. France was seriously spooked by this right-wing conspiracy which nearly succeeded. So this film is drenched in the atmosphere of paranoia prevalent at that moment in French society. France has always had its terrorists of all kinds, and the right wing ones have been as sinister as those of the far left. In this film, we see a small group of elegant, rich young bourgeois men who have decided to save their country from communism. At least that's what they think. And like all political extremists, the means always justify the end, so they are free to commit any crime, murder being their favourite. They meet twice a month for weapons and combat training in the countryside, gleefully firing their machine guns at symbolic enemies, with crazed grins on their faces. One of these young men is played by the youthful Jean-Louis Trintignant, a grim, humourless fanatic who beats up his wife. The conspirators at one point sing a Petainist song, and are clearly survivors of the Vichy mentality, only even more extreme. When Trintignant goes to South America, he boasts of having met exiled Germans who were kind to him (get it?) and says that as he moved from city to city, starting in Buenos Aires, he was always fed and given money and new passports by the endless network of sympathisers there. So we get the picture. Trintignant is married to Romy Schneider, who gives a marvellously rounded and inspired performance as a woman who clings to her persecutor and keeps returning to be beaten up again. But eventually she snaps when a baby's life is at stake rather than just her own. When Schneider realizes that her husband has attempted to assassinate a member of the National Assembly (or Senate, it's not clear which) by firing a bazooka at his flat from a rooftop, she does not desert him, a typical behaviour of the willingly enslaved masochistic woman. Despite her obvious psychological disturbance, Schneider is always laughing and exceedingly carefree in her manner, flirting and enjoying herself, so that the performance is really far from one-dimensional. Trintignant's best friend from his youth is a left-wing pacifist printer, played with convincing languor by Henry Serre. When Trintignant and Schneider seek shelter with him at a beautiful old mill deep in the countryside, the psychological complexities multiply. Serre and Schneider eventually become an item while Trintignant is off killing someone. This does not go down well with Trintignant, who simply cannot see the funny side, so he challenges Serre to a duel. Serre thinks this is some kind of joke, but even by now Serre has failed to realize that Trintignant does not joke. Eventually this leads to a life and death struggle on a small river island (a holm), which is what gives this film its original French title, LE COMBAT DANS L'ILE, which means THE FIGHT ON THE ISLAND, though the English language title is FIRE AND ICE, whatever that means. Naturally I cannot say what happens at the end. A sombre and intense mood is sustained throughout this film, so it is really more of a 'mood piece' than a story. But it is a mood piece which evokes a moment in time in France and gives us an insight into the fears which haunted people then. Many of the interiors of buildings in Paris glimpsed in this film are seen to be shabby, still not fixed up since the German Occupation. Indeed, the ghost of the Nazi presence seems still to be there, as the spawn of the Nazis go about their evil work. And we are left wondering about women like the character played by Schneider: what makes them tick? Or is their ticking really that of a time-bomb of self-destruction? This film poses questions of a psychological, moral, and political nature which are uncomfortable and will probably never be resolved as long as there are humans and human societies. There is always a dark side, and here we see some of it up close.