La verte moisson

A German tourist comes back to France to see the places where he would fight in WW2;he meets a priest (Pierre Duc) who remembers .....

Then begins a long flashback ; there was a highschool class whose students would not want to stay passive when their country was occupied and older compatriots were soldiers or resistant fighters .Based on real facts,unlike many movies dealing with French resistance,it's today completely forgotten but credible ; in Germany too ,there were highschool students who rebelled against Hitler : Hans and Sophie Scholl distributed flyers in their school and created the White Rose anti- Nazi pacifist movement :an informer turned them into the Gestapo and they were executed.(1943)

Highschool students decide to take a rebel stand ; they swear they would not denounce one of them even under torture ; they wrote on the walls of their dungeon : "being beaten up makes us stronger before death "; the characters are a bit cardboard but the young actors are convincing : some of them would become good French actors (Jacques Perrin, Claude Brasseur); one of them would find fame as a singer (Jacques Higelin).

Good scenes: the younger students ' skeleton turns a prank into repraisals and tragedy ;the recitation test , which is very suspenseful; the confession in the church.

This is François Villiers' only worthwhile movie."Pierrot la Tendresse " owes everything to Michel Simon but the rest is rubbish:faux realisme poétique ("Hans le marin" ) dreaded thrillers ("Constance aux enfers ") bland ecological fable ("l'eau vive" ).

Should you see one of Villiers's movies , this is the one to pick up without a moment's hesitation.