Le vieil homme et l'enfant (1967)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Claude Berri

Writers:

Claude Berri (writer)
Gérard Brach (writer)

Release Date:

19 February 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Claude is a Jew. Because of the risks of an arrest (France is occupied by the Nazis), his parents send him away to an elderly couple in the country...

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | France | Jew | Vichy | Young Boy

Awards:

4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Michel Simon	...	Pepe
Alain Cohen	...	Claude
Charles Denner	...	Claude's Father
Luce Fabiole	...	Mèmè
Roger Carel	...	Victor
Paul Préboist	...	Maxime
Jacqueline Rouillard	...	Teacher
Aline Bertrand	...	Raymonde
Sylvine Delannoy	...	Suzanne
Zorica Lozic	...	Claude's Mother
Marco Perrin	...	The Priest
Elisabeth Rey	...	Dinou, Maxime's daughter
Didier Perret	...	Dinou's brother
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kinou	...	Le chien
Denise Péron

Also Known As:

Claude
The Old Man and the Boy
The Two of Us (USA)

Runtime:

90 min | USA:86 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:15

Company:

P.A.C.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Le fantôme d'Henri Langlois (2004)

Based, I believe, on Claude Berri's Personal Story

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.