Week-end a Zuydcoote

It is a film deserving be loved like the novel inspiring it. The motif is more than simple - the cast and the cinematography and the brilliant simplicity , proposing fair reactions , nice dialogues, answers to the challenges, inspired portraits of love and comradery becoming friendship, precise definition of death and a great work of Jean Paul Belmondo.

Few scenes as the boats to the ships or as the horse toy in wave.

Very simple, must see it. Because it is more than a war film. It propose, in admirable manner, just simple war stories of ordinary people, out of recipes of heroism.

It takes real skill to make such an inherently dramatic story so damn boring and utterly drained of all interest and vitality.

The amazing shooting location, the vintage fighter planes, the explosions, the hundreds or thousands of background extras... all wasted on a film with no story. In place of a story, they give us a random string of random encounters between random people who talk and talk, and then talk some more about nothing. They walk and talk. They sit and talk. They smoke and talk. They drink and talk. And then some bombs go off, or some Messerschmitts fly low and strafe the soldiers. And then we're back to pointless talking. This is not a film. It's two hours of footage.

And it's unfortunately characteristic of a particular kind of French film (especially a 1960s French film) where we get a cast of automatons who don't at all resemble real human characters but go around engaging in inane chit chat or robotically spouting meaningless philosophical musings or dialectics. It's so 60s. It's so French.

It is really amazing that what was one of the biggest popular successes of the 60s in the French cinema has only one review on the IMDb! So here is my little contribution.

For those who have seen the recent "Atonement", the story will look familiar as the film is about one of the darkest episodes of WWII (i.e. the retreat of British and French troops at Dunkirk in June 1940), an episode evoked perhaps too briefly in the British film. In June 1940, British and French troops fighting against the Germans in Northern France were forced to retreat to the coastal town of Dunkirk and its suburbs. Their only hope of escape was to cross the Channel to England, but the boats were scarce and all the time they were attacked from the air by German fighter planes. This is literally the background for the whole movie. During two hours, we follow a young soldier named Julien Maillat through what was actually a terrible mess. Based on the first novel by Robert Merle, which was awarded the Goncourt Prize (the French equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize), "Week-end à Zuydcoote" is a realistic and grim portrayal of war. Merle himself was trapped on Dunkirk's beaches in 1940, and this brought a touch of authenticity to his work. Besides, when most war films depict glory and victory, this one is about defeat and loss. Therefore, the movie is not about battles between armies of nameless soldiers; it shows instead the boredom, frustration, fear and anger of ordinary human beings - all compressed into a turbulent two day period. That being said, don't expect one of those French "high brow" films! Henri Verneuil was an excellent filmmaker who knew how to make a real blockbuster (as this one proved to be). Although I never regarded him as an original nor even a prominent director, "Week-end à Zuydcoote" is perhaps his best effort. Well served by an excellent cast (leading man Jean-Paul Belmondo in one of his best parts, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Pierre Mondy as a gradually repulsive swindler...), the movie has benefited from Henri Decaë's exceptional cinematography and Maurice Jarre's fine score. Verneuil has managed to construct a believable reconstruction of the episode, which matches some of the best Hollywoodian movies on that period. The weak point (and this prevents me from giving this movie a 10/10) is the story that unfolds around the encounter of Maillat (Belmondo) and a young woman (Catherine Spaak) who resolutely refuses to leave her home in the suburbs of Dunkirk. This part of the movie seems artificial. While Verneuil is very good at depicting the protagonists' experiences, he proves to be clumsy with this segment. In spite of this minor flaw, "Week-end à Zuydcoote" is a thoroughly enjoyable show and a bitter reflection on war.

17 Feb 2008

I have just discovered that my revered Professor Robert Merle had passed away in 2004, and I feel a pinch in my heart.

He taught English Literature at the Paris University. He wrote his PhD thesis on Oscar Wilde and made some astounding revelation and discoveries, at that time. But he taught us also Shakespeare, Jane Austen, etc. My love of Austen' s novels come from sitting at his lectures.

At the beginning of WWII, Prof. Merle fled the debacle of the French Army; on the beach of Dunkirk he managed to get himself on the English boat that took him to free London, and this true story his very well depicted in "Weekend at Zuydcoote", which is a true biographical story, and very well played by Jean-Pierre Belmondo. I must say that he was twice taken prisoner by the Germans and interned in POW camps, from which he tried to escape. He told us, I remember very well, that we should be aware of sleeping on concrete slabs, but sleeping on wood was quite healthy. I did remember this good advice 20 years later...

He was a strong supporter of the Algerian Ben-Bella, who was of course murdered in a plane crash : if a man loves his country and wants the best for it, he should be killed.....

The late Professor Robert Merle, the tremendous author of "The Day of the Dolphin", and others, was a great lecturer; I will always remember his jokes, good humor and immense knowledge of the English Literature.

I am sad he is gone; I feel a slice of my youth is gone with him, even though I do have all the softening memories.

After just finishing reading the novel, which I regard now as one of the best war time books and which for me spoke about poignancy, faith, sexuality, believes (not as per faith itself) and manhood, I have decided to watch the movie as well.

The movie mostly faithfully depicts the events in the novels and mostly stays true to it. Unfortunately though the movie lacks the heart and soul of the novel and rather gives (for me) a third person view of the main character as we follow him and the events in contrast to the source material.

The cast for the most part is good, though obviously Belmondo excels in his role. Set design, atmosphere and looks are incredibly good, even in 2022, if you are used to 60 - 70s era movies.

Overall, it's an entertaining movie,IF YOU HAVENT READ THE NOVEL BY NOW, THEN GO AND WATCH THE MOVIE, but for someone regarding the source material in a high esteem, unfortunatelly its a disapointment.

Cheers, David from Hungary.