Wordiezett So much average

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Ben Larson Liberté, égalité et fraternité. The motto of France is certainly not very apt to describe the time of Nazi occupation. The nationalistic French mainly capitulated to the Germans, and left the resistance to a bunch of immigrants - Italians, Armenians, Jews, Hungarians, Spaniards, etc.This is the real Inglorious Basterds. The story of those who continually picked at the Germans and made their lives miserable. They don't go home in glory, but their names are on a role of honor for those who served to fight oppression everywhere.An American poet, Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian), and his wife Mélinée (Virginie Ledoyen) lead the group.Director Robert Guédiguian does an excellent job of capturing the period, and letting us get to know the actors before the action starts.

achenier A disappointing film in many ways. For instance,the persecution of the Jewish community is addressed, but in a way that does not makes us feel the true horror of it. It is presented as a political event that the characters in the film view more or less as a matter of fact.Similarly, little of the chilling terror that must have accompanied the maquis in their activities comes across. And some of the scenes are so unrealistic that they break whatever spell the film had succeeded in creating to that point. For instance, how likely is it that Resistant perpetrators of a successful attack on German troops would leisurely stand around their victims lying in the middle of the street, and chat. And how likely is it that one of the Résistance higher-up would emerge from the shadows and join them in their chat ? Surely, after the grenade explosion, the Germans, or the police, would have been swarming in immediately. The vast majority of native Frenchmen in this movie are portrayed as traitors and callous collaborators, while the Nazi barbarians are presented as gentlemen, assassinated at random, mostly for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. We must never forget that the population of France was the hostage of brutal thugs. To understand the conditions in that country, imagine if a village today was taken over by a gang of Hell's Angel who threaten everyone with death and torture if they don't do as they are told. Yes, of course villagers should refuse to obey and even go into the bikers' den and shoot everyone of them on sight. But is that really what we would all do?Surprisingly, this film was made in France by French people. It is another example of French self-flagellation.The film sins in another important way. The clear impression given is that the whole resistance movement was led and driven by immigrants with very little involvement of native French people. As if there was no Charles de Gaulle, no Jean Moulin, no hundred of thousands of other resistants, a great number of whom perished.Do not get me wrong. The intention behind this film is noble. Yes, of course, we must be informed of the essential, enormous and heroic contribution of immigrants to the Résistance efforts. This contribution needs to be acknowledged and honored.But this also needs to be done in a way that is fair to the other victims of German aggression. They are not to blame for what was done to them.

writers_reign Robert Guediguian has never been afraid to go to the mat with older and respected talents. Despite the odd foray by the likes of Renoir (Toni) and Marcel Tourneur (Justin de Marseille) the Marseille area is widely acknowledged as being under the ownership of Marcel Pagnol but this didn't prevent Guediguian turning out a series of consistently high-quality movies based in and around Marseille - Marius et Jeanette, Le Ville est tranquille, Marie-Jo And Her Two Loves, etc and now he horns in on Claude Berri (Lucie Aubrac) and Jean-Pierre Melville (L'Armee des ombres) territory with a film about the Resistance - he even manages to plug L'Armee des Ombres as if to tempt fate. It's nice to see Lola Namark and Ariane Ascaride in the same movie once again (albeit they never share a scene) but then it's Great to see Ascaride in anything. Simon Abkarian is the nearest thing to a leading man and Virginie Ledoyen as his wife revisits territory she staked out in Bon Voyage. Altogether it's a satisfying exploration of the rag-tag volunteers who comprised the non-French aspect of the Resistance and well worth a look.

raraavis-2 Another résistance tale, excellent settings, clothes, etc., but a very flat plot that never grips you. That, plus the actual length of the film make it feel eternal. The theoretical "good guys" - the résisrance, are mostly communists, quite a few of them rather sinister. One feels that their ideas are very similar to those of the Nazis they're trying to fight and, frankly, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. And,like so many French films, this one tries to rewrite history. Because, much as the French hate to admit it, most of the population just wanted to survive the war and disliked the résistants, who provoked dangerous German retaliation. Of course, after the war EVERYBODY turned out to have been in the résistance and had behaved heroically. All in all, a disappointing movie. Much better stuff has been filmed about that period of French history.