La rivière du hibou

BUYER BEWARE!

This short film is only one part of a three-story anthology film by Robert Enrico called "Au coeur de la vie" (1962) (please see elsewhere in IMDb). All three stories are inspired by Ambrose Bierce short stories about the American Civil War.

Something very strange happened to this particular episode of "Au coeur de la vie" (whose title is the translation of Ambrose Bierce's collection of short stories "In the Midst of Life"). First of all, it was proposed as Best Short Subject at the Oscars in 1962 and won, even though it had probably never been shown commercially that way in the US or anywhere else. Second, it was chosen as the very last episode of Rod Serling's TV series "The Twilight Zone", in a cost-cutting gesture.

It is this truncated version that is generally available on VHS and DVD today. It is unfortunately not the way its director wanted it and the two other episodes of that film ("L'oiseau moqueur" and "Chickamauga", a.k.a. "La Bataille de Chickamauga") have totally disappeared from everyone's consciousness.

That is really sad as I remember seeing the whole film in a cine-club in 1963 and going through a thoroughly gut-wrenching emotional experience because of the cumulative effect of these three stories. For the record, "L'Oiseau moqueur" ("The Mockingbird") tells of the terrifying confrontation of two brothers on a battlefield and "Chickamauga" relates the famous battle from the point of view of a six-year-old deaf and mute child living on a plantation.

Some producer somewhere probably decided that the entire film would be too intense to be shown in its entirety to an American audience and it has since sunk under the waters of forgetfulness, except for that maimed "Twilight Zone" episode, edited for the inclusion of commercials.

Let us all pray that somebody, somewhere will rescue it from the ravages of time before it is too late and make the whole thing available on DVD, in its original, uncut, uncompromised form, very, very soon

I first saw this film on The Twilight Zone when I was only about eleven.It was unforgettable.I believe it was a winner at the Cann Film Festival also.Just recently bought it and shown it to many friends.They all loved it.

Incident at Owl Creek Bridge is an excellent movie. My Mom saw this movie years ago when it was first shown on t.v. and it left an indelible mark on her. I remember how spellbound us kids were as she told the story to us...My hair stood on end. Mom has been wanting to find it and I just looked here, hoping... and voilà, here it was listed. Although it may be an old movie, the acting and the subject matter would appeal to a broad range of ages. There was so much suspense within us kids as Mom recounted the movie that we were totally silent and still, listening raptly, wide eyed and tense.We felt as though we were right there watching it. Years later, I finally saw it and it was just as my Mom had described.I highly recommend this one and so does my family.

The original writer of the story was a civil war reporter. He covered many such events as outlined in the film. I like this film for many reasons. First, it is a black and white film to capture the feeling of the story. Next, the story was very realistic for the time in which the story takes place. Also, there are very few spoken lines. Finally, the twist at the end is worth the wait. I am not going to spoil the ending, but please be patient to the end. I promise that you will not be disappointed. When I was in college my class studied this film for all of the above points. It is short, only about 30 minutes, but the time is not wasted. It is a moving piece and I recommend it to anyone!

I first saw this film, and thought it to be a Hollywood production. It is of course a French film; I had seen the dubbed version. However I urge anyone that has the chance to watch it! It has a unique twist to the plot, superb acting and a quality storyline. It has not dated, and is a standard for all involved in this genre to attain. When I first saw the location, and the uniforms I really did think it to be a big company film. I was amazed to see the credits at the end, all in French.The genre of this movie is somewhat similar to another film, I believe also to be from France "The Telephone Box", another superb piece of surreal film making. Thanks, and I hope you get to watch this superb film. Posted July 2004