L'empreinte des géants

With "L'Empreinte des Géants" ,Robert Enrico returns to his favorite subject:manly friendship against a hostile world.He had begun in this vein with his "les Grandes Gueules" and reached a peak with the following work "Les Aventuriers" .Nothing is left from the ambitious first efforts such as "Au Coeur de la Vie" (which would remain Enrico's best)and "La Belle Vie" .

People who liked "Les Grandes Gueules " will enjoy "l'Empreinte des Géants" .It's more of the same.The sawmill has been replaced by a highway building site.There are several good sequences but as a whole the movie leaves a little to be desired .It's interesting to note that Anne Wiazemsky,discovered by Bresson in "Au Hasard Balthazar" ,plays here the only "mainstream" part of her career .

Maybe I am still too much under the influence of LES GRANDES GUEULES, another Robert Enrico's film, made fourteen years earlier, and itself adapted from a José Giovanni's book. But the charm is not here anymore, maybe because there is no François de Roubaix's score. Good intentions and performances, good character symphony for a plot that could have been better in a series frame. That's my own opinion. No real lead here, as Lino Ventura and Bourvil in LES GRANDES GUEULES.... But that remains a good Robert Enrico's film, though not his best. Some José Giovanni's touch from time to time. Yes, it looks very much like a TV movie, or Tv series. But who cares? I also thought of some John Ford's films atmosphere I mean relations between characters.