War of the Buttons

A real delight. Wistfully nostalgic for the innocence and inspired creativity of childhood. Hilarious in parts. Why is this such an obscure film?

"La guerre des boutons" is based on the same title book by Louis Pergaud, which was published in 1912 - 3 years before its author was killed in action from friendly fire during World War I.

The book and its story, although it can be considered lighthearted and humorous, it is a dark manifestation about the stupidity and the futility of war.

Watching this film, almost 30 years after I firstly read the book (on a Boy Scout summer camp), I remembered not only the joyfulness and the innocence of my own childhood but also themes, points and conflicts from the book, that I couldn't fully perceive them as a child while I was reading it, such as leadership, friendship, camaraderie, tolerance, belonging versus violence, abuse, hating, bullying.

This 1962 film was a nostalgic trip to those years and a fine adaptation of the book.

French director are 90 % of the time great for movies with children, because children looks and sounds like real children, not adults in the bodies of childs. I remember seeing this one when I was a kid in the sixties. Years later, I saw it with my adult eyes and the impressions are the same : this is really a film about children! Adults, here, all looks like people from another planet. There are lots a funny gags and we also have the chance to see a forbiddon rural France, very rustic and in relation with nature. Some English director make a remake in the 1990's, but this is the original. A delight!

Rural France fascinates the French, and to those in the main cities like Paris, Marseille and Lyon it is regarded as that ' other place ' where people behave very differently. Crudely put they are either simpletons or people of the earth representing the true nature of life. This film tends towards the former attitude but it is a somewhat ' gentle ' attack against stupidity and vulgarity by concentrating on the children of two villages who go to ' war ' against each other. They of course represent the grown-ups around them who are often either drunk or slightly violent in their approach to each other. It is fun to watch as both sides take ' prisoners ' and ' torture ' them by tearing off all the bottons on their clothes, and so we have in one scene the laughable situation of a battle scene in the nude. As the children imitate their elders by using swear words they barely understand this all appears vaguely shocking, especially to the West Germans who cut it, and the prudish English giving it an ' X ' certificate. That just shows how two countries can be as backward as the two opposing village children. As for the film itself it is well filmed and the director Yves Robert speeds the whole absurdity along with zest. Personally I got a bit bored with the relentless and overbearing music, and the sheer noise of the whole thing, and a feeling of monotony ( the enemy of all cinema ) set in. No spoilers but the ending is rather moving and the last line of the film painfully relevant to the ( partial ) side the film is on. It also errs on the side of sentimentality which grated on me, especially concerning one of the smaller children, but taking all things into consideration it is an oddity worth seeing.

Yves Robert died a few days back and I write this comment as a tribute to him:"la guerre des boutons" is a timeless brats movie,which can be watched forty years after with the same pleasure:a blockbuster when it was released in France in 1961,French kids enjoy it at least as much as their parents or grandparents today.

Of course,Louis Pergaud's Rabelaisian novel,written at the beginning of last century, was watered down (but not cheapened),or else it would not have been accepted by the censorship:there are lines in this book that would make blush the well-meanings.The words are crude and not prudish at all.The story was much more than a funny joke though:actually,the children aped the grown-ups and THEIR wars:("to think,that later,we will be as stupid as'em!"-this is the last line of the movie).

Yves Robert transposed the action to the rural sixties.He gathered lots and lots of children whom he directed masterfully."Magna cum laude",first class honours,for young "Petit Gibus"!anyone who watches the movie will love him:he's so funny when he gets drunk!Shot in black and white,the movie will remind you of your schooldays.

Louis Pergaud died in 1915.The war he was waging was not a war of the buttons.