Un roi sans divertissement

The mood was captivating. The setting was magnificent. But what the hell happened in the last twenty minutes!!!

I think that it's difficult translating idea-driven literature into two-hour long films. In this case, I felt as if I was watching a half-remembered dream and hearing a half-forgotten play. Doesn't work. That's why adapting Shakespeare to films is a futile exercise because Shakespeare is about words whereas a film is about images. You can either have words, or you can have images, but you certainly can't have both.

First I must pay homage to a fine actor, Claude Giraud, who is no longer with us. It is a sadness too for the cinema that he did not make enough films, especially of this quality. When this film came out in France 60 years ago it went against the modish fashions of the times, but unlike so many of those films it does not show a single wrinkle. Perhaps it is because it was a costume drama set in the 19th C, and this made it timeless, but personally I do not think so. Like all films like this with such magical ambiguity it cannot be explained. Giraud is a detective in uniform; a young man who is seemingly lost in the cold wintry landscape of a remote region in France. He is looking for a murderer and unexpectedly finds a truth about himself that he is unable to bear. The thread of a haunting song by Jacques Brel about why men are bored is as melancholy as the snowy region of relentless whiteness that appears to have no end. It accentuates the boredom that makes men murder without a hint of physical sexual desire, but solely motivated by the act of murder itself. Boredom is the thrill of human annihilation. Perhaps this is more relevant today than it was back then in the more optimistic nineteen-sixties. No spoilers, but a plea for this film to be rediscovered and to my knowledge it has never been shown in the UK, or the USA. A shame on us for preferring the fashionable to the essential.

This is François Leterrier's second film ,and along with his first effort "Les Mauvais Coups" ,it can be considered his best.The rest of his career,with the eventual exception of "Projection Privée" is almost worthless ("Emmanuelle","Va Voir Maman Papa Travaille" ).It's extraordinary he fell so quickly after his ambitious debut.

"Un Roi Sans Divertissement" is an anomaly in the French sixties.It has nothing to do with the nouvelle vague (who said fortunately?) and nothing to do with the old one either.Its cast is bizarre:Claude Giraud,de la Comedy Française, was essentially a stage actor,mainly known for a supporting part in the "Angelique Marquise des Anges " saga and Colette Renard was a singer , an occasional actress.Charles Vanel was the only household name ( "Le Salaire de la Peur" ,"Les Diaboliques" and "To catch a Thief").A Jacques Brel song (not intended for the film) "Pourquoi Faut -il Que Les Hommes S'Ennuient?" "(=why must men be bored?)is heard during the credits .

A rural thriller involving a serial killer ,a "man like you and me" ,an officer who investigates in a small village surrounded by snow ;he is housed in a middle age woman's café (who was once a madam). The screenplay displays weaknesses -it's difficult to believe the final behavior of the hero-and the dialog is too poetic,too literary. Jean Giono was more convincing when he showed his pacifism in other works than when he tries his hand at metaphysical considerations.

What is really fascinating is the cinematography ,the atmosphere which the director creates: the search in the snow where human people look like giant insects from a distance ,a search which looks like an entertainment:the moment when they share a delicious chef's special paté is revealing.Sometimes the picture almost turns black and white.And I've rarely seen a more inventive way of filming a church.

I have just seen a french DVD copy of this film. It is one of the most interesting thrillers I've seen in along time. The visuals are astonishing and the dialogues are as sophisticated as you would expect from someone like Giono. The concept is fascinating: a policeman and a serial killer play cat and mouse in an isolated mountain village in Nineteenth century France. Unlike most thrillers, there is no psychological explanation of the killer's motives, but a metaphysical, existential reflection of the nature of murder, which can be considered highly original, and at least as immoral as De Quincey's thesis.

It is clear that this film was a heavy influence on Chistophe Gans' "Brotherhood of the wolf", although I would suggest that the unexpected (yet totally coherent) twist at the ending has been copied in many films such as Friedkin's "Cruising" (francophile smart ass!) or Von Trier's "Element of crime".

Giono's script simplifies the complex plot of the original, but then a film script is not a novel; the new version of "Un roi" is close to perfect in cinematic terms, combining elements of a thriller with the study of a mind collapsing slowly under the pressures of loneliness and isolation. The images, even in the grander scenes such as the wolf hunt, avoid melodrama in favour of a gradual build-up of tension. Most memorable is the astonishing use of occasional colour in the essentially monochromatic snowscapes, particularly the great red star of blood splashed across the snow. An unjustly neglected masterpiece, currently (and for many years) unavailable in any form.