A Walk with Love and Death

An obscure movie from the master John Huston, what's hell it happens I really don't know, but for me a forgotten gem, set place during the Hundred Years War between England and France, a young French man Heron of Fois (Assaf Dayan) distressed by such killing and madness he decides leave Paris and start a journey towards to the sea, wondering leaves the country at overseas, along the way he meets several people, peasants, soldiers and a beauty lady Claudia (Anjelica Huston) whose he wrote a poetry, in exchange she gave him her silk scarf for good luck, late he meets a bunch of men back from a failed journey to Jerusalem, this small group are gathering newcomers to try again, the Pilgrim's leader asking him about everything, including women, if he wants follow them he needs forget all sins and treat the women as Devil's creatures, very soon he realizes that they are crazy and left them for good, when he finally reach near of shore, someone talk about an uprising of the peasants against Noblemen, then he returns to helps Lady Claudia which the castle was raided, a rarest movie to be found, where John Huston implies a sort of pureness in a world collapsed by an endless wars, a man looking for peace and freedom, an anti-war picture, shrewdly done by the prolific director, a must to see!!!

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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8

This film bends over backwards to look like old paintings and tapestries, and succeeds better than some others with ten times the budget.

Dayan is not a strong actor, and baby Angelica is even worse, but the film is worth watching if you're in a poetic frame of mind.

The story wanders and is lumpy in shape, yet I'm glad to have seen this movie and finished it with strong, lingering emotion.

A doodle from a great artist can be more interesting than a strained masterwork from a lesser talent. Worthwhile for those who still have nerve endings.

Never dull, always alive with authentic and rich scenes; unpredictable and interesting. The wooden acting of the leads is appropriate for two young people who are fresh out into the world. They are surrounded by an extravagant variety of characters of the late Middle Ages, all well portrayed and decently acted. The scenery is picturesque, the music is lilting and fair, and the plot veers between barbarisms and nobility. It has been beautifully filmed and the direction keeps the plot moving briskly. There is no fat, no wasted scenes, no stupidity. The story is believable and moving, a story of sensitive youths trying to survive in a world suddenly gone mad. The creatures who seek such chaos are trying to turn the world upside down; they seek their own order through chaos. They seek to rearrange the world into their own hideous image. This is a story of how civilized people deal with the carnage of progress.

The movie is a thin, episodic journey through a landscape marked by battles and skirmishes and dangers - it doesn't aim for an epic quality (everything is very sparse) nor to analyze the political or social aspects of the situation (except in a brief appearance by Huston himself as a nobleman who's giving up his rank to join the peasants - he's much more vibrant and interesting than anyone else in the movie): actually it's a bit of a mystery what it DOES aim to do. Judged simply as an evocation of pure time and place, it's a bit too discreet and tidy - hardly the kind of attempt to conjure up messy verisimilitude that failed in "Revolution." Huston is fairly interesting and manages to convey both her noble blood and the idiosyncratic attitude that would have led her on this journey. The film's general discretion works against a compelling depiction of passion, and it ultimately seems to have worked its way merely to a teenage idyll of togetherness, which makes it hard to face up to the imminent tragedy. An odd item in Huston's filmography, sometimes exhibiting the awkwardness of a dubbed Continental item.

I would have preferred the film in Sepia or black and white. Everyone was a bit too made up for the 14th. Century. Interesting, thought provoking but only mildly entertaining. Certainly not one of John Huston's best efforts.