O Velho e o Menino

This movie shows the power of the media in shaping the minds of simple folk, filling them with irrational prejudices. This shaping is what leads to the rise of totalitarian governments and to Islamic fascism. The best way to fight this, is to have the chance to live with and directly influence, by subtly challenging these prejudices with reason and logic. But the logician, in this case was a nine year old boy who lives in the country with an elderly couple as a way of surviving the final years of Nazi occupied France. The movie is very touching and meaningful. Filmed in black and white, which gives the movies a war time feel. The on-screen relationship between the old man and the young boy, which helps each to grow, is what good story telling is all about.

I caught this at the local art museum, what a treasure it is! I became interested because the director is Claude Berri, and his "Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources" story is one of my favourites of all time. Although this movie is in black and white, it's a superior quality and beautiful to watch. The story, of a little Jewish boy hiding out in the country with an anti-semitic old man in occupied France, could easily have gone down the path of sadness and tears, but instead it is a joyous movie full of laughter and love. I must say Michel Simon is a delightful actor, and makes even a narrow-minded, ignorant, brainwashed old man like Pépé a kind, fun grandpa that any child would love to have. I believe this movie is based on Claude Berri's actual experience, but I did have to wonder at the end if Pépé was ever told the truth about the child's heritage and if so, did it matter? Anyway, this is a fantastic heartwarming movie that you shouldn't miss if you ever get the chance to see it.

I just saw this at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival and I was completely astounded! I was expecting it to be good as several people had expressed their love for it but I was not expecting to feel about it the way that I did. A story about a young boy who gets sent away by his family, for his own protection, is shown through the eyes of an imaginative, smart, little boy. I found it amazing to see a film about this time, as experienced by a child - fascinating. Although the story is very difficult, sad and almost unimaginable, Claude Berri manages to make this film powerful and yet very funny at the same time. I would recommend this movie to everyone. It is a French film however for those of you who need them, there are subtitles. So what are you waiting for... go see it!

"Le vieil homme et l'enfant " is the first of a series of four autobiographical movies about the director's salad days : for the record , the three other works are : "le pistonné" (1969) "le cinéma de papa" (1970) which became a common noun to designate the old (but great) old French cinema and "la première fois" (1976 )(starring Alain Cohen ,the young star of "le vieil homme" )

The first movie is undoubtly the best and it's sure easy to see why :It features Michel Simon ,one of the all-time greatest French actors ; by 1967,he had under his belt masterpieces by the dozen by the masters of the history of French cinema: Renoir, Duvivier,Carné ,Gance,Guitry,Decoin et al.

Once more, he shines in his part of a grumpy old man , with received ideas , who epitomizes the Marechal Pétain 's ideology in the occupied France; he hates the English,the Jews and the commies although he has never met one of these persons in his lifetime .

But the father (a very good Charles Denner ,who would reappear in "la première fois" ;in both middle movies,the part of the daddy was played by Yves Robert ) wants his son to be in security :in the country ,in the occupation days , French people had more food than in the cities and they stand less danger of being caught up in a round-up because they are Jews.

So the little boy must pretend he was brought up a catholic , he must know his "our father" prayer by heart: It's all the more important since the old country man is a limited anti-Semite ;so is the entourage ,particularly the schoolteacher who has her pupils sing the petainist anthem "Marechal Nous Voila " dutifully every morning.;and the Marechal's portrait is to be seen here there and everywhere .

A warning tells us it's "the occupied years seen through a child's eye" ,a child who does not understand the plight man's madness put them in.

The boy/old man relationship is extraordinary -and you'll shed a tear for their companion,the good old dog-It's double initiation rites: not only the boy has to discover an unknown milieu ,but he embarrasses his protector with naive (but relevant) questions about Jesus (so his daddy was a Jew, wasn't he?)which lead the narrow-minded person to question himself .He will see the others differently when the war is over.

This tale of a young Jewish boy sent into the French country side to avoid the possibility/likelihood of a round up of Jews by the Vichy Government parallels Claude Berri's personal experience, I believe. It says at the very beginning of the film that it is an experience seen in retrospect from the vantage point of the child. So, while it is sentimentalized as another commenter wrote on this site, that's what one might expect from a grown up looking back at the adventures of his eight or nine year old self. This is definitely NOT a straight forward narrative from an uninvolved scriptwriter/director. The "Grandfather" with whom the child is lodged hates Jews. He claims to be able to recognize them by their smell, their hooked noses, etc. The role of the Grandfather is brilliantly executed by Michel Simon. Filmed in the sixties in black and white, it still appears occasionally at Jewish film festivals under the title "The Two of Us." While you may despise the Grandfather's bigotry, he's also portrayed as loving toward the boy and lovable. The connection between the Grandfather and the boy, portrayed by Alain Cohen, is actually quite touching. A brief scene at the very end seems to indicate that the boy was reunited with his parents after the war but it passes by so quickly that I'd have to see it again in a stop frame to be sure that the faces of the parents are real and not imagined. Not a great movie, but definitely worth seeing.