Les loups dans la bergerie

This crime movie speaking of gangsters facing off young delinquents in the deep South of France reminds of course TOTAL WESTERN Eric Rochant's film, made in 2000. All long the film, the audience expect the fight between the two groups, and every one wonders who the good ones are among all those hoodlums, including them "to be". This was a rare film, till last year. The main weakness is maybe a midcast concerning the gangsters. Pierre Mondy and his sidekick were maybe not the best choices, but their acting is more than OK. This is also a topic speaking of the juvenile delinquency and the people in charge to reeducate the young hoodlums. Good characters study and performances too. The story and atmosphere are pretty close to the novel it is inspired from, but maybe not each detail of the book either. Jean Amila, the novelist, made mostly social crime flicks.

"Les Loups Dans La Bergerie" is at last available, not a masterpiece, but a cool french film noir directed by Hervé Bromberger who did the year before the interesting "Asphalte". In both movies, we see hoodlums. In this one, 3 gangsters running away the police find refuge in a halfway house which they control with their guns. Lot of tension between the gansters and the 30 hoodlums, but it's shot in the same place and the story doesn't change much. There is especially one scene quite strong, you cannot forget this one. Music by Serge Gainsbourg. You sure won't miss Françoise Dorléac.

"Les Fruits Sauvages" (1953): a bunch of youngsters escapes from their families and from the police (one of them played by promising newcomer Estella Blain has committed murder)and takes refuge in an abandoned village

"La Bonne Tisane" (1957) : an injured gangster is admitted in an hospital which becomes the place where cops and robbers settle scores; featuring again gorgeous Estella Blain as a nurse who will spend a "night to remember" .

"Les Loups Dans La Bergerie" combined the young characters from the former work and the intruders from the latter.Unfortunately ,the story is tentative ,and the director seems to be caught between two stools : the old cinema à la Delannoy ("Chiens Perdus Sans Colliers") and the broader ( are they?) horizons of the Nouvelle Vague :thus all the ending ,filmed on location (which Bromberger pulled off with gusto in "Les Fruits Sauvages " ) , lacks focus ,with actors left to their own devices ,tries to ape the free form dear to the Young Turks but only captures its looseness.

Actors directing is weak :the three bandits on the run are carbon copies of those of Wyler's "desperate hours" ; the threesome features the obligatory neurotic character :Wyler's Sam was fat and Jean-François Poron (future bland Duc De Nemours in Delannoy's overlooked "Princesse De clèves")is slim but it does not make a big difference ,and anyway Bromberger is no match for Wyler.Poron ,chuckling and shooting, gets on one's nerves after some time .The rest of the cast is a little above average :Mondy plays Mondy; the best of the lot is probably Jean-Marc Bory (future Jeanne Moreau's lover in Louis Malle's work)but he is not given a single moment to shine .

On the plus side ,the splendid landscapes, a good scene of a youngster the gangster forces to run before his car ,to the sound of the locusts and Gainsbourg's jazzy music .

The Office Catholique Du Cinema was not too hard on the movie but they wrote that a short scene (they do not mention it but I bet it's Françoise Dorléac's naked breasts )should have been cut.

This is curiosity ,certainly much more uneven than both Bromberger's movies I mention above and " Identité Judiciaire' (many consider his best) ,but certainly better than "Nagana" ;my feelings are mixed.