Le Crabe-Tambour | |
---|---|
Directed by | Pierre Schoendoerffer |
Written by |
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Based on | The Paths of the Sea by Pierre Schoendoerffer |
Produced by | Georges de Beauregard |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Raoul Coutard |
Edited by | Nguyen Long |
Music by | Philippe Sarde |
Distributed by | AMLF |
Release date |
|
Running time | 120 min |
Country | France |
Language | French |
Box office | $9.1 million [1] |
Le Crabe-tambour (Drummer-Crab) is a 1977 French film directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer, based on the novel The Paths of the Sea he published in 1976, which is inspired by the adventures of Commander Pierre Guillaume (1925-2002). It was translated into English by the maritime novelist Patrick O'Brian as The Paths of the Sea (1977). The film stars Jean Rochefort, Jacques Perrin and Claude Rich. Highly criticially acclaimed, it won three César Awards: Best Actor – Leading Role (Jean Rochefort), Best Actor – Supporting Role (Jacques Dufilho) and Best Cinematography (Raoul Coutard) and was nominated for three others.
The story concerns a trio of contemporary French naval officers on patrol in the North Atlantic who reminisce about their experiences in the First Indochina War and the Algiers Putsch. The Doctor (Claude Rich) has returned to naval service after an unsatisfying civilian life. The Capitan (Jean Rochefort), suffering from cancer, is completing his final command. The title character, Willsdorf, played by Jacques Perrin and based on the famous French Navy officer Pierre Guillaume, had been their charismatic comrade in Vietnam but became alienated when he supported the military coup in Algeria. Willsdorf now commands a fishing vessel scheduled to rendezvous with the warship. The two naval officers relate their memories as they await a possible fraught meeting -- which never occurs.
Filming locations included Mers El Kébir in Algeria, and the helicopter base at Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer. The film is inspired by the adventures of Commander Pierre Guillaume (1925-2002). [2] During a bar scene, Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" is played; it features on the soundtrack for the film. [3]
The author of the novel and director of the film Pierre Schoendoerffer said (translated from French):
"He was one of those legendary captains! So we got to know each other, and we really hit it off. When I started writing my book Le Crabe-Tambour, there was something in his story that interested me. It's not his biography, it's my story as I dreamed it... I dedicated my novel to my youngest son, Ludovic, because when he was a child he had a little round belly on which he drummed, and because he walked on all fours and crookedly, I called him "the crab". Hence the "Drummer-Crab"! You see, it's something quite personal. It's not his life, it's not mine. It's something else." [4]
The film was highly critically acclaimed. Vincent Canby of The New York Times described it as one of the "grandest, most beautiful adventure movies in years", writing that it "may be somewhat old-fashioned in its emphasis on courage, honor and the glory of war, no matter what the cause. However, it's also wonderfully old-fashioned in its convoluted, romantic narrative, which moves from Vietnam, during the collapse of France's control of Indochina in the 1950's, to East Africa, Algeria, Brittany, Newfoundland and the stormy fishing grounds on the Grand Banks." [5] Politique Magazine described it through an external review as the director's darkest film, a "metaphysical film which questions as much the meaning of life as that of past commitments" and which "haunts the imagination of all spectators passionate about the wars in Indochina and Algeria". [2] In their book France at War in the Twentieth Century: Propaganda, Myth and Metaphor, Valerie Holman and Debra Kelly write that this film and L'Honneur d'un capitaine (1982) are "typical of Pierre Schoendoerffer's literary and filmic oeuvre in their determination to make the case for the defence of the colonial officer corps". [6]
Le Crabe-tambour won three César Awards: Best Actor – Leading Role (Jean Rochefort), Best Actor – Supporting Role (Jacques Dufilho) and Best Cinematography (Raoul Coutard) and was nominated for three others: Best Director (Pierre Schoendoerffer), Best Film and Best Music (Philippe Sarde).
Jean Raoul Robert Rochefort was a French actor. He received many accolades during his career, including an Honorary César in 1999.
Jacques Perrin was a French actor and film producer. He was occasionally credited as Jacques Simonet.
Jacques Dufilho was a French actor. He was born at Bègles (Gironde) and he died at Ponsampère (Gers).
Bruno Jean Marie Cremer was a French actor best known for portraying Jules Maigret on French television, from 1991 to 2005.
Raoul Coutard was a French cinematographer. He is best known for his connection with the French New Wave period and particularly for his work with director Jean-Luc Godard, which includes Breathless (1960), A Woman Is a Woman (1961), Vivre sa vie (1962), Bande à part (1964), Alphaville, Pierrot le Fou, and Weekend (1967). Coutard also shot films for New Wave director François Truffaut—including Shoot the Piano Player (1960) and Jules and Jim (1962)—as well as Jacques Demy, a contemporary frequently associated with the movement.
Pierre Schoendoerffer was a French film director, a screenwriter, a writer, a war reporter, a war cameraman, a renowned First Indochina War veteran, a cinema academician. He was president of the Académie des Beaux-Arts for 2001 and for 2007.
La Guerre des boutons or War of the Buttons is a 1962 French film directed by Yves Robert. War of the Buttons is about two rival kid gangs whose playful combats escalate into violence. The title derives from the buttons that are cut off from the rival team's clothes as combat trophies. The film is based on La Guerre des boutons, a novel by Louis Pergaud (1882–1915), who was killed in action in World War I and whose works portray a fervent anti-militarism.
Georges de Beauregard was a French film producer who produced works by many of the French New Wave directors. In 1968, he was a member of the jury at the 18th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1983 he was awarded a Special César Award, the French national film prize.
The Manifesto of the 121, was an open letter signed by 121 intellectuals and published on 6 September 1960 in the magazine Vérité-Liberté. It called on the French government, then headed by the Gaullist Michel Debré, and public opinion to recognise the Algerian War as a legitimate struggle for independence, denouncing the use of torture by the French army, and calling for French conscientious objectors to the conflict to be respected by the authorities.
Pierre Guillaume was an officer of the French Navy. He took part in the Algiers putsch of 1961 and in the Organisation armée secrète, which opposed what it regarded as De Gaulle's treacherous abandonment of Algeria to the FLN terrorists.
The 8th César Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma, honoured the best French films of 1982 and took place on 26 February 1983 at Le Grand Rex in Paris. The ceremony was chaired by Catherine Deneuve and hosted by Jean-Claude Brialy. La Balance won the award for Best Film.
Véronique Silver was a French actress.
Moonlight in Maubeuge, is a French comedy film from 1962, directed by Jean Chérasse, written by Claude Choublier, starring Claude Brasseur and Louis de Funès (uncredited). The film was known under the title Moonlight in Maubeuge.
Pierre Schoendoerffer, the Sentinel of Memory is a 2011 feature length documentary film about French writer and filmmaker Pierre Schoendoerffer, directed by Raphaël Millet and produced by Olivier Bohler for Nocturnes Productions.
The Farm of Seven Sins is a 1949 French historical drama film directed by Jean Devaivre and starring Jacques Dumesnil, Claude Génia and Aimé Clariond.
One Nation, One King is a 2018 French film written and directed by Pierre Schoeller. It stars Adèle Haenel, Gaspard Ulliel, Laurent Lafitte and Louis Garrel, and shows the French Revolution in Paris from the storming of the Bastille to the execution of the King. The film made its world premiere out of competition at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on 7 September 2018. It was released in France by StudioCanal on 26 September 2018.
Objectif: 500 millions is a 1966 French crime drama film written and directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer and starring Bruno Cremer and Marisa Mell. who made it after the success of The 317th Platoon (1965). Jorge Semprun collaborated with Schoendoerffer on his screenplay.
The Paths of the Sea is a 1976 novel by the French writer Pierre Schoendoerffer. It is set on a patrol boat in the Arctic Ocean and is about two French naval officers who deal with their memories from the First Indochina War and the Algerian War, centred on their mutual friend Lt. Willsdorff.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)