Good movie but grossly overrated

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

For those who like the real France, this movie is a recommendation: it's not about Paris, fashion, artists or politicians but it's about provincial life, with old bricks, nature, simple life, historic furniture and lack of technology... I'm sure that today the locations are as old, as quiet as if time doesn't happen...The story is not that invented because my native land faced this same tragedy with the small town of Oradour: beastly, inhuman, bloody SS killed civilians, children, women, old people... I'm surprised to see that the tragedy comes so soon but for one time, all the flashbacks are pretty moving... The director is really inspired to involve the audience and honestly, Noiret has the part of his career while Romy is the usual shining / anxious wife...the DVD (without subtitles!!!) says that critics lament about the violence but it's another proof that those Parisian professionals have limited scope, skills and intelligence!!!

Overall the Cesars get it right in terms of Best Film and if they occasionally make a complete dog's breakfast of it - as they did with L'Esquive - they have a large backlog of rewarding films as fine as this one. Robert Enrico dealt with War memorably in Au Coeur de la vie and here he does so again; different war, age-old tragedies. Superficially this comes under the 'last straw that broke the camel's back' heading crossed with what may be described as the Destry Rides Again syndrome, the protagonist finally driven to take up the gun once cast aside. Enrico begins with an idyllic sequence as the Dandieu family complete with dog cycle through a countryside in which God is in his heaven and all's right with the world. The image freezes and a caption supplies the date: 1944. We then meet the family again in wartime; Julien (Phillipe Noiret), Clara (Romy Schneider) and young daughter Florence. Even in wartime this is a HAPPY family and unprepossessing men everywhere are thinking they could do with a drop-dead gorgeous wife like Schneider whilst kids in the wake of mild chastisement wish they could belong to a family like THAT. Indeed Julien is so laid-back he makes Bing Crosby seem riddled with tension and the film hinges on what makes this worm turn. With the Germans advancing Julien prevails upon a friend to drive wife, daughter and dog to a country retreat he owns in a fairly isolated spot. When he gets a minute he drives up there himself just in time to see his daughter shot and his wife incinerated by a flame-thrower making a full set of dead villagers. This, of course, is when he feels the need for revenge and so breaks out his old hunting rifle. This is where we may wonder why it has taken so much to rouse this peaceful man; it is, after all, 1944, the fifth year of a world war and one in which France has been occupied for most of it; surely even as a civilian he has seen sufficient horrors and as a surgeon has dealt with them at first hand. The next question we find ourselves asking is why he is content to go up against men armed with pistols, rifles,machine guns, grenades and flame-throwers with only a shotgun rather than picking off one man and appropriating his weaponry.If we don't dwell on these logical questions it is because the performances are so compelling as is Enrico's narrative style which switches back and forth in time but not necessarily chronologically and keeps well in reserve such relevations as the fact that Schneider already had the daughter when she met Noiret and was well aware of his plainness. This is nothing short of superb; beautifully written, directed and acted, and more than worthy of its Best Film Cesar.

One of the best "war" films from the french cinema. The cruelty and the feelings are perfectly depicted Unforgettable the scene where Philippe Noiret knows what happened to his wife and daughter. The developing of the action is not as usual since the good old days are not in the beginning of the movie, but in the middle via the projection of home movies by the German soldiers, who murdered the two women. The systematic battle between the doctor and several soldiers,in a crescendo of violence that takes place in a "huis clos" is an example of directing and editing. The finale is like a balloon that is out of gas, the climax was attained and one more the leading actor shows how not to act to show true feelings.

The story telling is utterly convincing, and because of the flashback technique, we feel the emotion of the main character (Julien) as the drama unfolds. The suspense is keen and mounting. The viewer keeps asking with increasing intensity: is this what I would do in Julien's position? His mistakes make us groan, his successes make us cheer. His pathos makes us cry.