El caballo del orgullo

Based on a novel by Pierre-Jakez Hélias. A small Breton community before and during the First World War – mostly very idyllic, despite periods of hard luck, poverty and despair (la chienne de monde). The young couple (both blessed with lovely smiles) and their child, the narrator. Many sweet and funny scenes, as well as a few sad ones. The soft-hearted postman cannot bear to read letters bringing bad news. The title comes from a family saying; they're too poor to own a horse, but they have the horse of pride – the child rides on his father's shoulders. Better than any horse, the boy says at the end. There is tension in the schools about speaking French, not Breton. The family are reds, proud and liberty-loving. Beautiful pace, photography, costumes...

This is a thoroughly wonderful movie made, unfortunately, for a steadily shrinking audience. Pier-Jakes Helias' Chevel d'orgueil is not a novel, but a memoire that recounts not just one child's life, but the entire culture in which he lived, inland Brittany (l'Argoat) primarily before World War I. The movie has no plot as such. It is a series of vignettes that illustrate, very well, different aspects of Breton inland life at the time. The dialogue is sometimes in Breton, sometimes in French, depending (largely but not always) on what language the characters would actually have spoken in a given situation.

The unfortunate thing about this very good movie is that it really doesn't explain the culture it presents, it just presents it. As a result, if you are not already familiar with the culture it presents, a lot of it will not mean very much to you. While I generally don't like voice-over commentary, this is one movie that, for most non-Breton viewers, would greatly benefit from one.

So, a wonderful movie. But, I concede, one that will not mean a lot to those not already immersed in inland Breton culture.

Though I watched this in French, without the benefit of subtitles even in that language, I have to say that it emerges as the least Chabrol ever! While occasionally changing tack completely from the thrillers he was best-known (and admired) for, this pastoral drama in a period setting was as far removed from his 'comfort zone' as could be imagined.

Consequently, it is hard to fathom what the director thought he was doing here or intended in the first place – given that the end result is plot less, excruciatingly dull and comes with an obscure title to boot! Maybe Chabrol was after some prestigious award, which were not so freely handed out to the essentially commercial fare he usually dabbled in.

Anyway, what we get is an irrefutably meticulous and reasonably affectionate recreation of a particular past era – Brittany at the time of WWI – but, in spite of its (expected) appealing photography, at almost two hours, the documentary approach is positively deadening. The simple events in the daily life of the inhabitants hardly elicit a response from the viewer, other than as a waste of time alas. Frankly, the image that has stuck with me a week after viewing this is the fact that, for no discernible reason, the peasants involved sleep in hanging cupboards!

Unusual Chabrol movie is a period drama depicting (and celebrating) a simple, rural milieu, beautifully set and photographed, all well-intended, but somehow misses the point it wants to make.

In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, in Britanny, Pierre-Jacques narrates the story of his peasant parents since they got married in their province. Pierre-Alain (François Cluzet) and Anne-Marie (Bernadette Le Saché) got married and live with their parents in the same house. They work with their neighbors, women and men performing separate work. They have good moments with their plantation and bad moments with starvation. The Breton's religion, superstitions, beliefs and customs are transmitted by parents to their kids along with the stories told by the elders. When the men go to fight in the World War I, the women need to work harder to survive with their families. Despite the poverty, people is proud of their lives. Since the family of Pierre-Jacques cannot afford to have a horse, his grandfather Alain (Jacques Dufilho) and his father put him on their shoulder to ride on the horse of pride.

"Le cheval d'orgueil", a.k.a. "The Horse of Pride" (1980) is a different and odd Chabrol's movie for very specific audiences. The film is good, supported by magnificent cinematography but the plot is related to Britain and its people, giving the sensation of a National Geographic documentary. This film has not been released in Brazil; therefore, it was hard to find it subtitled in English, but yesterday I finally saw it. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.