Christian-Jaque and Jean-Louis Barrault had previously collaborated on filming the life of composer Hector Berlioz. That film has merit but here they have gone one better with this portrait of Henri Dunant, the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Dunant's single-minded mission to found what became the Red Cross stemmed from witnessing the horrific spectacle of thousands of wounded and dying soldiers with no medical attention following the Battle of Solferino.
There is no doubting that Dunant's belief in the Brotherhood of Man struck a cord with Christian-Jaque and it shows.
What can one say of Barrault, one of the greatest actor/directors of the post-War theatre who went from the Comedie Francaise to forming a company with his wife Madeleine Renaud. His film appearances are sporadic but always telling, most notably as Baptiste in 'Les enfants du Paradis'.
He has at times a tendency to be 'detached' but here he is simply superb as Dunant and really inhabits the role.
Biopics are devilish tricky to bring off as the nature of film requires both omissions and additions! One cannot but wonder if the unconsummated love portrayed between Dunant and rich widow Elsa Kastner, played by Helene Perdriere, is fact or fiction. Their tender scenes together are beautifully acted however and serve as a contrast to the Battle of Solferino, the surreal dream sequence and an unforgettable scene where Dunant waves the Red Cross Flag during the Austrian siege of Paris.
The director has again used the services of cinematographer Christian Matras, designer Robert Gys and editor Robert Desagneaux. The score is one of Joseph Kosma's most powerful and the cast has the privilege of speaking the lines of Charles Spaak.
No easy task to do justice to a towering figure like Dunant in 96 minutes but the spirit of a great humanitarian has been captured brilliantly in this piece which must surely be Christian-Jaque's labour of love.
