Le dernier été

98 % of the time, French TV movies are badly made. This one ain't an exception and it's sad, because it had a very strong story. It's about a jewish politician in France at the end of the 1930's and the early 1940's. Villeret plays, in a wonderful way, the real and sad story of Georges Mandal. In the 1930's he tells everybody that the Nazis will make a terrible war, but nobody listens to him, because he is jew. When the Germans enters in France, Mandal refuses to collaborate to the Petain government and sent in jail. He will be shot. Comic actor Jacques Villeret - he becomes better every year - plays this dramatical role in a very serious way. The problem is the filmaking. Very ordinary and sometimes bad. But it's very interesting to see Villeret in that kind of casting. After that, he will have great success with Le dîner de cons & Les enfants du marais. It is a great surprise, because in the 1960's, 1970's and most of the 1980's, he was just a little comic guy. Now he's becoming a very great actor.