Le Crabe-Tambour

I'm not the smartest puppy in the litter, and I am often lost in a movie. So I just have some vague conception of what actually was going on here. But unlike most movies today, it has an unusually forlorn and mysterious feel to it that makes it appealing. Its characters are also people who get little notice today, which for an American audience would include French officers engaged in postwar colonial action at the end of French colonial rule. There's a lot of great photography too. So, even if the characters are remote and the storyline, bouncing around different time periods and places, is perplexing, the movie was moderately pleasing.

CRABE-TAMBOUR's base-camp story is simple-- the antiquated officers of a functionless army spend a voyage home on rough North Atlantic seas recounting stories of a cavalier-soldier whose busted military career spanned France's last years of colonial globalism. This beautiful film (master Raoul Coutard's sea-footage is a film unto itself) is rich, ironically resonant, and in a wrenching last scene, comparable to Peckinpah in its regard for its stoic heroes, the last-men-standing at the sorry end of empire.

Movie is strongly architectured with flashbacks and could be understood at first as the story of a pure and almost mythical officer (Wilsdorf). At that level, it is just a good story. Much more interesting are the other characters (Doctor, Captain, Mechanical officer) that have been all fascinated by Wilsdorf. It is a deep human picture of all our weaknesses and dreams. Everybody may find some points in these lifes while Wilsdorf is more an abastract heroe. For French, debates about colonial period and fidelity is also interesting. On top of that, some scenes at sea are great (I checked on a sister ship during my military duty).

I am working a librarian in the french equivalent of the British Council, in Quito, Ecuador, South America. A long long time ago, when I was still living in France, a friend of mine lend me a copy of Shoendoerffer's novel, "Le crabe tambour". I never forgot this small pocket book, which surprisingly enough was not published anymore.

A few years later, working in the Alliance Francaise of Quito, I found out an old video copy of the movie. Its quality was definitely not top notch, for it had been taped from the french TV in the 80's. The sound was quite bad, making it uneasy to catch the dialogues.

Even though, I loved it. Definitely. A few months later, the video was removed from the library, because it was not an original. Of course, I took this one with me and brought it home.

Why is this film so magical?

Because it blends in a superb way the drama of history (more precisely, the bitter decolonisation years of the french empire in Indochina / Vietnam and Algeria), its heart-braking influence on the soldiers who fought these lost wars, philosophical reflections about the meaning of man's liberty to choose his own way (and the subsequent price to pay), beauty of the sea and the men who sail her, friendship, death.

As Kubrick's 2001, "Le crabe tambour" does not reveal everything at first seeing. Like a marvellous book, it is to be seen again, and again. Again for the beautiful acting of Rochefort, Rich, Dufilho and Perrin. Again for the harshness of the dialogues, and the importance of silence. Again for the magnificent photography of boats struggling in the cold and furious North Atlantic. Again for this unique and moving confrontation between history and men.

Just like in Kubrick's 2001, there is not much of action to be seen. Despite the different places it takes us through (Indochina, Algeria, France and sea), the film is much more like a long and uninterrupted dialogue. Two officers on a small boat, encountering each other on the common ground of their friendship for a third one, the absent one, the "crabe-tambour". Two old and battered military men, chasing a ghost, each one for his own intimate and imperious reasons.

So will we, one day, ask ourselves the same frightening question : "What have I done with my talent?".

For me, this is definitely worth a 10 out of 10. But I strongly recommend reading the book first, if can be.

This was an amazing movie to look at--the footage of the North Atlantic was gorgeous and breathtaking. I can really appreciate all the trouble everyone went to making this film. However, apart from the great cinematography, I found the movie not particularly interesting. I think that is because the film is told in the form of flashbacks from several different people--it tends to bounce around a bit and can lose the viewer in the process. Getting lost was not as big an issue for me, as I am a history teacher. However, many non-French viewers will not understand the context for what occurs in the movie and the flashbacks will leave them baffled.

FYI to anyone wanting more background info--Following WWII, the French were trying desperately to hold on to the colonies it controlled before the war. The movie begins with the French in Indochina (Vietnam). They are continuing a war that had actually begun before the Japanese took over Vietnam. In essence, when the Japanese left, the war between the French and Nationalists resumed. The French lost this war in the mid-1950s and the United States entered this fray about a decade later.

Although there were some other small skirmishes along the way that were not mentioned in the film (such as the joint British-Israeli-French invasion of the Suez region), the movie picks up AFTER an abortive coup in the early 1960s. That's because Nationalists in Tunisia and Algeria had been pressing the French for independence (though many saw this land as an extension of France--not merely colonies--and losing it was unthinkable to them). This seriously undermined the French government and the military made attempts on deGaulle's life as well as attempts at a military coup. The officers involved were in some cases executed, imprisoned or fled the country. All this occurred because deGaulle's government reluctantly agreed to give up North Africa and the military felt this was a betrayal of France. The lead in the movie Drummer Crab was apparently one of those involved in these coup attempts. Another film that briefly discusses this same topic is the incredibly great film, Day of the Jackal (not to be confused with the supposed remake).