Henri Calef is perhaps the most underrated director of the pre-NV era whose best works ("Jericho" "les chouans" "eaux troubles" "l'heure de la vérité ") have stood the test time.
This splendid war melodrama avoids pathos ;the last scene is silent,just a smile , and that's it .Well acted by Isa Miranda , Frank Villard and Carla Del Pioggo ,although the latter was perhaps too old for her part.
A cultivated man, Calef was always interested by history and it's only natural his long flashback takes place in the trenches in WW1 ; the way those memories are introduced into the movie is particularly elegant: in the window of a bookshop ,Taillandier sees a book ,its title reads :" memories of Marimon";this man was a brother in arm in WW1. During a furlough,he had an affair with his wife.
After the war, when Taillandier reads his killed in action pal's book , there's no hint at him though he saved his life once. He suspects his wife who never wanted to see him again when she learned he knew her man ,of erasing the passages where he mentions his name. Then begins a journey through the past in which his former lover's daughter is involved .
The film depicts camaraderie in the trenches :"we were four ,(like the three musketeers ?)and we did believe that our bonds would help us to escape unharmed "; the old guard waging war by spreading maps over a desk (Noel Roquevert) ; the daughter who has never known her father and wants to learn about him ; the secret which justifies the title.
Watch out for two short appearances by Louis De Funès as a gardener (not a comic relief).
This is another fine film by an unfairly unsung French director.
