Those "buttons" pop off again in Christophe Barratier's remake, WAR OF THE BUTTONS

At least the fifth rendition, movie-wise, of the famous French novel La Guerre des boutons -- written in 1912 by Louis Pergaud, a young writer who died three years later fighting for the French during World War I (his death is a study in the ironies of wartime) -- this latest endeavor is but one link in a chain of novel-into-movie-after-movie-after-movie. TrustMovies imagined that an earlier film had been made prior to Yves Robert's 1962 version, and sure enough, there was one: La Guerre des Gosses (The War of the Kids) in 1937. Then the Irish made their own remake in 1994, and last year the French rebounded with two Wars, both released nationwide in France, one just seven days after the other. Surprisingly enough, both did decent box-office business.

The first of these two was directed by Yann Samuell, who earlier gave us the odd, dark and sprightly Love Me if You Dare. I have the sinking feeling we shall never see M. Samuell's version here in the USA because the second of the two newest Buttons, and the film under consideration here, has been picked up for U.S. distribution by The Weinstein Company and opens tomorrow in New York City and Los Angeles. Its director/adapter Christophe Barratier (shown at right), who earlier gave us smart, appealing crowd-pleasers like The Chorus and Paris 36, has accomplished pretty much the same thing with his latest film.

As director and co-adapter (with Thomas Langmann and two other writers), M. Barratier has set his War in the midst of another war -- World War II -- and this has both its benefits and one major draw-back. Three of the remakes -- Samuell's, Robert's and the Irish ver-sion all set their film in the 1960s, which was also Robert's current time frame, while the 1937 version, unseen by me, probably takes place in some time period between the novel's original and the year the film was made. Setting this story -- of gangs of kids from nearby and competing villages who engage in a "war" in which buttons are removed from the opposing gang's clothing as "victory trophies" -- in our current times, these kids' "war" would probably result in the kind of mayhem and misanthropy found in Battle Royale or The Hunger Games.

On the plus side, Barratier's movie is well-cast and acted (the wonderful faces of the kids register individually and strongly: that's the adorable Clément Godefroy, shown center), beautifully filmed in the French countryside, and the element of the Nazi overseers, even though we barely see them (the French needed little push to do the German's bidding) adds some suspense and gravity to the situation of the children's own little "war." The down side of all this comes from Barratier's pandering to his home audience by making nearly everyone in the small town either a Resistance fighter or someone remarkably quick to rise in defense of Jews. As feel-good as all this proves, you'll want a taste of Sarah's Key or the upcoming La Rafle in order to get your bearings on reality again.

In the leading roles, kid-wise, are one newcomer Jean Texier (above, right) as the "good" gang's leader, Lebrac, who proves a natural, versatile actor whom I am sure we'll be seeing soon again, and the more seasoned pro, Ilona Bachelier (above, left), as the new-girl-in-town he gets to know.

Adult roles are taken by the likes of Guillaume Canet (above, left, and for the first time looking fully an adult) as the town's teacher, Laetitia Casta (above, right, as his stand-offish enamorata) and Kad Merad (below) as Lebrac's dad.

They're all just fine, and if this latest War of the Buttons reeks of guilty pleasure, so be it. Hell, Americans can probably enjoy it even without the guilt, since we don't need to believe that every second Frenchmen joined the resistance. The movie opens tomorrow, Friday, October 12, in New York City (at the Angelika Film Center), in Los Angeles at Landmark's Regent Theater, in San Francisco at the Bridge Theater and in Berkley, CA, at the Shattuck Cinemas. A nationwide limited release will follow.

DVDebut: Christophe Barratier's powerhouse, French-financial-crisis film, THE OUTSIDER

Having seen and enjoyed Christophe Barratier's three previous films -- The Chorus, Paris 36 and yet another War of the Buttons remake -- TrustMovies was anxious to see what this nostalgia-dipped filmmaker has been up to of late. Interestingly, his current film, THE OUTSIDER, is also his least nostalgic (unless you count the financial crisis of the decade past as a piece of nostalgia) and may very well be his best movie yet.

As co-adapted (with Laurent Turner) and directed by Barratier (shown below), from the memoir by Jérôme Kerviel -- the trader involved and responsible (with the help, of course, of his bosses) for what happend at one of France's larges and most "reputable" banks -- the movie is both crackerjack entertainment and yet another indictment of the world's financial establishment.

What Barratier, his cast and crew capture particularly well is the atmosphere of the trading room -- this is as good as I've seen; better, in fact, that the overblown and so-pleased-with-itself version Scorsese gave us in The Wolf of Wall Street and certainly on a par with The Big Short. Because the movie is based on Kerviel's story, as told by him, we of course get a biased viewpoint, and yet the filmmaker and his star, the excellent and increasingly versatile Arthur Dupont, (of One to Another, Bus Palladium and Haute Cuisine) show us both the relatively innocent young man who begins the tale and the hotshot, semi-sleazebag he eventually becomes.

Dupont's fine performance (the actor is shown above and below, left) also allows us to view the incremental changes in Kerviel as he moves along his path. This fellow was less a crook than a very good trader, as well as a smart, intuitive man.

The supporting cast is made up of some excellent actors, too, especially François-Xavier Demaison (above, right) who plays Kerviel's initial boss -- a fellow who is smart, nasty, smarmy, and just full of Jesus allusions. This is a terrific, award-calibre performance.

Romance is provided by the attractive and feisty Sabrina Ouazani (above, left), as the young IT woman Kerviel falls for, while Thomas Coumans (above, right) portrays Mathieu, his best friend at the bank, a man who tries to keep our would-be hero on the straight-and-narrow.

We get a taste of Kerviel's family life, too, as well as some of his extra-curricular activities (below) but mostly we see him turn from a quick-study innocent into a force of nature so far as trading is concerned. And when the shit finally hits the fan, we see in action the much-vaunted "team spirit" (that doubles as the movie's aka title), as team mates, and especially the bank's bosses, run for cover.

The Outsider is yet another necessary lesson in why the world's financial sector so desperately needs those very regulations that seem to be currently disappearing -- perhaps for good.

From Distrib Films US, reaching DVD via Icarus Film Home Video, the movie hit the street this past Tuesday, June 5 -- for purchase and/or rental.

PARIS 36 Opens FSLC's French Rendez-vous series: Good Choice!

Early March is the time of year that French film buffs in the tri-state area probably cherish more than any other, thanks to the annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema presented jointly by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance. This year should only add to the anticipation and laurels, as 18 new films make their U.S., North American, and in one case (The Girl on the Train from André Téchiné) world premier at this festival -- the consistently best-attended program in the FSLC's annual repertoire.

The opening night event features, as usual, a film that proves a popular, rather than an "arty," choice. Last year saw Claude Lelouche's Roman de Gare open the fest and go on to have a successful run in art houses across the country; in 2007 La Vie en Rose made its first NYC appearance at the fest prior to relatively boffo box-office and a Academy Award for Best Actress to its star Marion Cotillard; and 2006 saw Palais Royal! do the opening night duties -- never to be heard from again (well, you can't win 'em all…)

This year, I predict, will not remind us of 2006 because opening night will see Faubourg 36, already smartly snapped up for U.S. distribution by Sony Pictures Classics, make its U.S. premiere. Idiotically re-titled Paris 36 (for whom? Art house/foreign-language audiences would have had no trouble figuring out the Faubourg angle), this throwback to classic soap-opera cinema offers just about everything that a two-hour French film taking place in 1936 can contain. Suicide, murder and vaudeville; nasty French Nazis, good-hearted Socialists, a child custody battle and unrequited love; song and dance -- including a variation on Busby Berkeley and that understudy-gets-her-break chestnut -- comedic impersonations, and a very funny fashion sense. The result? A crowd-pleasing, tear-jerking, music-loving bundle of cinematic joy.

In other hands, all this could easily come off as tired and second-rate but director/co-writer (with Julien Rappeneau and Pierre Philippe) Christophe Barratier approaches his material, on one level, as though it were something new. Consequently, it seems fresher than it has any right to be. On another level, however, the director is very canny. He allows each scene, and all the moments in it, to last not a beat too long, so that the movie, while not charging lickity-split ahead with lots of fast-paced editing, still moves quickly enough that we have no time to waste. "You've seen this before," Barratier seems to be saying, "so let me elide here and open up there and make it all appear new." He does. One of his elisions -- at the very end -- manages to do away with WWII entirely and instead of giving us the expected resolution, allows the audience to use its imagination to fully savor what it knows will come. This leaves us in something approaching an enormously satisfied state of grace. (Unless, of course, you hate the movie -- which has its share of detractors. A film like this, that harks so defiantly to the old-fashioned, always does.)

Barratier has so far made only one short film and the full-length, award-winning (The Chorus). He uses many of the same actors: Gerard Jugnot (below, right), Kad Merad (below, left) and especially Maxence Perrin (son of actor/producer Jacques Perrin). How wonderful, too, to see again Pierre Richard (The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, The Toy), who is sublime here. Clovis Cornillac (below, center, from Gille's Wife and this Rendez-vous' Bellamy) -- he of the mug's face and the Schwarzenegger (well, in his early years) body -- is not an actor you'd expect to see in a semi-musical, yet Cornillac acquits himself admirably as a fighter, lover and dancer. The discovery of the film is its leading lady Nora Arnezeder (above, right), who brings to her role of Douce an irresistible combination of beauty, sweetness and strength -- not to mention, if it is truly her singing that we hear, a knockout voice. The whole ensemble, in fact, is aces. And don't worry if Rendez-vous' Opening Night is inevitably sold out or its $20 price too steep. This movie will have its theatrical release, draw art house crowds aplenty and appear -- eventually -- on DVD.


The complete schedule for this year's Rendez-vous with French Cinema, including dates, times, prices and ticket-0rdering, can be found here.

PARIS 36 (alias Faubourg 36) opens to, shall we say, divergent reviews....

So, which is it? "Perhaps not horrendous enough to bring down a proud national cinema all by itself, but it is so shameless in its pandering, sentimental vision of Frenchness as to constitute something of a national embarrassment." (This comes via A. O. Scott's review in today's New York Times.) Or, as Lou Lumenick's review would have it in today's New York Post: "A gleaming hunk of French period schmaltz expertly rendered by director Christophe Barratier"?

I have blathered on about the delights of this wonderful film twice already, so I will simply suggest that, if you are a fan of old-fashioned French cinema made new again via some very competent handiwork, then go see the film -- and on the big screen. It's lavish and sweet, sentimental but genuinely moving, and features one singularly amazing production number and several lovely songs. Plus, in the ingenue role, Nora Arnezeder -- shown above (and below with Pierre Richard: remember The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe?) -- lights up the screen in every scene she inhabits.


Here in NYC, the film is showing only at The Paris, but will go wider -- in the Tri-State area and nationally -- over the next week or two.