And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep-
Charles Kingsley
The color version ,made by Pierre Schoendoerffer , who also filmed Loti's "Ramuntcho " , was a free - and I mean free- adaptation of Pierre Loti .
See yourself:
Pierre Loti's book took place at the end of the nineteenth century. The script writers transposed it to the late fifties ,and they kept the proper nouns (though Gaud became Gaude) and no much more. For instance Gaude's father becomes Yann's boss ;besides she is wooed by a white-collar dandy who becomes her squeeze' rival -although the latter has a lover too-. There is no Iceland like in the book,almost all the story taking place in Concarneau ,Brittany."Pêcheur D'Islande " is the name of Yann's old tub! And the young Sylvester who dies in a war during his military service gets drowned. And Gaud does not lose her father ,so she does not have to earn her bread and butter. And of course ,happy end.
De Baroncelli's silent work does the writer justice ; it's a good French work from the silent era , one of the first roles of Charles Vanel ,whose fabulous career almost spanned the entire twentieth century.
In Brittany , where the sea is omnipresent, death is an ongoing threat ,anguish is felt everywhere ;even though she's in love with a fisherman,Yann , Gaud knows her life might be waiting ,waiting,waiting ,hoping for her husband to come back ;she has visited the graveyard where the "wall of the disappeared " tells the story of those who sailed away and never came back ; life is hard ,everyone 's gets a raw deal .
Yann's younger bros ,subjected to the call -up of the "inscrits maritimes" (conscripts who do their military service in the navy) ,is sent to Tonkin and repatriated on a hospital ship where he 's delirious -sperimposed pictures,a special effect often used all along the movie ,before breathing his last.....Although Loti was himself an officer who fought in the Boxers war , the lack of means is obvious in the war scenes
I've already a wife,says Yann ,it's the sea ,and she is a jealous spouse .When he finally agrees to marry Gaud ,it's too late and the wedding is the climax of the movie .Even during the wedding banquet ,the sea makes her presence felt : "she's raging ,the wind begins to howl, she's furious ,angry and reclaims her husband.
Too bad modern technology , even though it perfectly restored the pictures , did not add a soundtrack in certain scenes,notably the ball,the parade and the wedding ,with Brittany folk music and the howling of the wind.
For men must work,and women must weep , but perhaps his ship will come back some day. Perhaps ..
