Der Franc-Tireur

Just a couple of notes to what has already been submitted. The title of this movie in France was never Chinese Glory, although it may have been released in English with this absurd title. The French title Le Franc tireur could have been rendered in English as the Sniper. Although made in 1972 it was released 30 years later. Someone wondered why. The film was suppressed by the French government because the images of the resistance were not politically correct. I saw it in Paris shortly after its 2002 release and found the film intriguing. Although this film treats the fighting in the Vercors as relatively ineffectual in actuality the Vercors was a center, among others, of the resistance. Phillipe Léotard is superb in this irreverent account of asymmetric warfare.

Shot in 1972,and released 30 years (you read well) later.I could not find the reason why on the web.

Philippe Leotard ,the movie lead and an outspoken personality (his brother François was a minister of the right during the late eighties and the nineties,but the siblings seemed to be worlds apart),died of too many excesses in 2001 at 61.So maybe they released "le franc-tireur" as a tribute to the late actor.Even the name was changed and it became -not a bad choice- "les hasards de la gloire".

Hazards of glory indeed.Leotard portrays a man who 's neither a collaborationist-although his new mates hints at it- nor a Resistance fighter.He's like many French people.The story takes place in the Vercors,in the south of France where the Resistance was intense .

1944:The war was coming to an end .The "hero" took refuge in his grandmother's house but they were attacked by German soldiers and he had to take to the maquis .He would reluctantly share the life of a handful of Resistant fighters .

This is a slow-moving non spectacular movie,the dialog remains intentionally trite ,and if it were not for the letter box format and the color,it would almost recall a documentary.The male lead is some equivalent of the female one played by Simone Signoret in "le jour et l'heure" (René Clément,1963):both do not care about Resistance ,all they want is staying alive ,but one day they are thrust into the action,and they become heroic by force of circumstance.

The movie ends abruptly (it's very short:75 min).The following year,Louis Malle's "Lacombe Lucien", which dealt with the same period and which was widely talked about, ended the same way .

Easy to define it as boring. A young man looking only to survive, few members of Resistance becoming, after tragic events, his mates, many ambushes and many dead people, le Midi and efforts to not die in zone where the nayis are more than present.

Nice story, trite dialogue, portraits of ordinary people and the heroism in not so familiar forms.

The end of war as frame of a couple lives , simple desires and simple amusements and a tricky young guy diescovering the life in its not most comfortable aspects.

The end is just magnificent for its status of bitter moral about wars and people , about options and about so useful anonimity.

In short, just simple truths, not pleasant but useful to be reminded and a beautiful job of Philippe Leotard.