La Guerre Est Finie

Description

For some soldiers, the war is never over... Legendary "New Wave" director Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad) helms this emotionally-charged suspense-drama set in France and on the streets of fascist Spain, starring European film icon Yves Montand (Jean de Florette), a young Genevieve Bujold (Coma) in one of her first screen appearances, and the radiant Ingrid Thulin (Wild Strawberries). Montand is an aging revolutionary learning to accept that the fight for freedom should be passed to younger hands until a chance encounter with a student terrorist revives his militant passions, but catastrophe stalks Montand on his unswerving path to his last mission and a fateful choice.

Customer Reviews:

THE WAR CONTINUES.......2007-04-02

At first glance the story line in this French film, sub-titled in English, set in the mid-1960's about the trials, tribulations, frustrations and sexual adventures (this is a commercial film, after all) of an exiled underground Spanish Communist Party functionary still working to defeat the Franco regime in Spain would seem a little dated. However, two things retrieve it from that fate. First, despite the victory of Franco in 1939 those who fought the Civil War on the Republican side most definitely had some unfinished business. Thus, the exploration, even if only cinematically, of the dangers and pitfalls of the necessary underground work in the fight against reactionary regimes still rings true as a lesson for latter day struggles. Secondly, an exploration of the wear and tear on committed cadre still fighting the good fight under much more trying circumstances than we currently face should help those who are trying to fight against today's `monsters'.

An interesting sidelight of the film is the counter-position of the strategies of the old guard Spanish Communist underground leadership committed to patient, if unrewarding, work to gain a hearing from the masses and what turned out to be the Spanish "New Left" of the 1960's that was looking for more demonstrative means of igniting those same masses. Thus the issue presented in the film of the classical general strike proposed by the old guard versus what amounted to urban guerilla warfare, including spectacular individual acts of terrorism, once again was played out on the Spanish left. Who won the argument? Well the class war still goes on so to pose the question is to give the answer. That in the end General Franco died in his bed in the mid-1970's is, however, something no progressive should have been or should be happy about.

War Games.......2005-08-12

Throughout history anytime there is a war you will find the youth and elderly people see the world and its problems two different ways. According to the youth, elderly people have given up fighting the good fight. They have fallen through the cracks and have conformed to what society wants them to think and say. The youth, the elderly say, are dreamers. They are inexperienced and optimistic. They actually believe they can change the world with their ideas. I think that's what Alain Resnais' "La Guerre est finie" (aka "The War Is Over") is about. The clash between these two ideas.

Yves Montand plays Diego Mora a member of the Spanish Communist Party who now lives in France. His group is trying to stage a strike during the Spanish Civil War. On his way back to France, travelling under a false passport, since it is feared the police may know his true identity, he finds out about a partner, Juan (Jean-Francois Remi) who may be arrested as soon as he arrives in Madrid. Diego and his partners treat this information as business as usual. They sit down and discuss the situation, taking notes. Diego, who considers himself a professional revolutionary, says the most important trait to being one is patience.

Back home in France Diego has a girlfriend, Marianne (great Bergman actress Ingrid Thulin). She yearns for a "normal" life. She wants to have a baby with Diego. She evens says she is willing to move to Spain, just to be with him. But she can sense, just as we can, Diego doesn't want a family. To a man like Diego his work is his first priority. A family would just get in his way.

While in France Diego meets a group a young radicals who are on the side on the Communist, headed by Nadine (Genevieve Bujold). They have a much different approach on how to solve Spain's problems. They believe in action. Diego and his friends believe in talk. Neither can understand the other. But, there must be a common ground. And they have to find it. Whether or not the movie does I will not say.

"The War Is Over" is so far the best Resnais film I have seen. I admit I have not seen them all, but I have enjoyed everything I've seen so far from the high talented filmmaker. "The War Is Over" may be described by some as slow moving. Boring or the worst film they have ever seen. It is none of these things. It is though a movie about ideas. There is not a lot of action scenes. No car chasing scenes. If that sounds boring to you I guess you shouldn't see this movie, but all I can say is I'm glad I did.

And what about the film's title, "The War Is Over"? What does it mean? That might be open for intrepretation but I think it means Diego is going to stop the fight. In the film we hear him talk about settling down in Madrid with Marianne. He asks her if she would join him. He doesn't think he is really being useful to the fight. The war may be over for Diego but the battle wages on.

Bottom-line: Alain Resnais' "The War Is Over" is a thought provoking well acted film. In my opinion it is Resnais' best work.

Perhaps the worst movie ever.......2002-09-07

I am thrilled that a DVD version of this nightmare has been released. After 36 long years I am able to show my friends what I have so often argued is the most horrible example of film making in all human history. I recently viewed it for the second time, the first being in 1966. Perhaps I was too young then to appreciate the subtleties or nuances of the film, its textures and complexities. Gimme a break, this thing plays worse now than it did then.

The reason I firmly believe that this is the worst flick I've ever seen is that it actually takes itself seriously: It has a respected director (Resnais), stars the greatest French actor ever (Montand), and introduces the beautiful and talented Genevieve Bujold (oh those eyes). Throw in Ingrid Thulin (Bergman freaks know this talented woman) and the movie shouldn't miss. It does, it is just bad.

There's a story in there somewhere wrapped around a few steamy (for the times) sex scenes and a delightful bit of on-camera puking (always fun). Mostly the movie tries to insult your sensibilities while engaging in a pointless and confusing character study of a frustrated middle-aged anti-Franco Marxist. The problem is the guy is shallow, there is no character to study. The rest of the people are very `60s Euro-lefties, very chic, and very uninteresting to all but themselves (and Resnais) in 1966 - I can't begin to imagine how boring they must be to modern audiences. If you want to be entertained while battling against old right-wing Spanish dictators grab yourself some Hemingway.

When we left that theater in 1966 my date turned to me laughingly and said that if I lived a good life God would never make me see a movie that bad again. Apparently I've lived a good life.

Listen, I've sat through Ed Wood productions and Anne-Margaret's "Kitten With a Whip" but "La Guerre Est Finie" remains the worst flick I've ever seen.

No peace........2002-04-10

*La Guerre Est Finie* is about a Spanish revolutionary (Yves Montand) in his 3rd decade of agitating against Franco. For the nonce, he lives in France and has two mistresses. Ripe enough for you? Well, the movie was directed by Alain Resnais, a man who will never be confused with Ian Fleming. Therefore, don't expect an action flick or a spy spoof. Instead of shootouts, Resnais gives us the meticulous altering of passport photos. Instead of glamorous casinos, he shows the interior of a small garage of some guy's house and nondescript bedrooms. Instead of martinis, there's coffee. Instead of tuxedos, there's cardigans. You get the idea. But all the mundanities only serve to provide a depressingly realistic context for the movie's deeper themes, the main one being Time as destroyer. Time has certainly beat up Montand's Diego: his face is pock-marked and sagging. (It contrasts nicely to then-newcomer Genevieve Bujold's peppy little-girl face.) There's a grievous sense in *La Guerre Est Finie* that the world is running down, grinding to a halt, like Diego's comrades who keel over from coronaries. And when the clockwork finally breaks down someday, no one will be where they need to be. (Yes, Franco's dictatorship will even pass away, but too late for the characters in the story. Time destroys EVERYTHING.) This is one of the best films of the French New Wave by its best practitioner -- indispensable for movie lovers everywhere. Highest possible rating. The score, by the way, is one of the most beautiful ever put to film. [The DVD, by "Image Entertainment",[stink]s. The glories of Sacha Vierny's photography will remain obscured till this movie finally gets the Criterion Treatment (which it had better!). Yes yes, the movie is darkly composed, but not THIS darkly. No features, natch. Whatever. It's one of two Resnais films available on DVD, so I guess you'd better get it anyway.]

But who won?.......2002-01-06

It seems odd to have to explain who Alain Resnais is, or his significance in the history of cinema. At the peak of his reputation, when "La Guerre est Finie" was made, he was viewed as one of the world's most innovative and important filmmakers. No one with even the remotest interest in film would have been unfamiliar with his name. Speaking personally, few have influenced me as deeply as he, in both technique and thematic interest.

Time moves on, however, and while Resnais will certainly have a place in film history, it will probably not be because of "La Guerre est Finie." It is clearly a product of its time, not just because Spain's subsequent history has blunted much of the film's thematic bite, but more because of its rather too self-conscious pensiveness. While the subject of a Resistance fighter moving across borders could work as an action film, "La Guerre est Finie" deliberately avoids much suspense in order to dramatize the dull stretches between high points.

This focus is certainly preferable to hyped-up action, but unfortunately Resnais and screenwriter Jorge Semprun do not so much reveal and evoke as replace one set of conventions with another. If you have seen any European, particularly French, art films from the 60s, you know what to expect: lots of philosophical talk, endless sequences of characters rolling around in bed, much political attitudinizing, and even more pointless walking around the streets of Paris. "La Guerre est Finie" is hardly alone in using these clichés, but that's the point. In what is supposed to be an in-depth examination of a character in crisis, fashion substitutes for observation and the results have more to do with filmmaking habit than any real grappling with the subject. (With one exception: the debates in the Communist cell to which the main character belong, thick with the pedantic rationalizations that give Marxist theory a bad name, feel like the gentle parody of a knowing insider.)

Which is not to suggest that "La Guerre est Finie" is either cheap or tawdry, merely banal in everything other than form. The camerawork and editing are so superbly rhythmed and timed you don't much care about the subject. (Given his talents, it's a pity Resnais has never made a musical.) Ironically, though perhaps inevitably, "Guerre" is most effective in the suspense scenes. It is nothing much better than respectably well-meaning as character drama; as formal exercise, on the other hand, it is peerless.

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La Guerre est finie (Original French ONLY Version - No English Options)
Director: Alain Resnais
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000TFOQT2

Product Description

Diego is one of the chief of the spanish Communist Party. He is travelling back to Paris (where he lives) from a mission in Madrid. He is arrested at the border for an identity check but manages to go free thanks to Nadine, the daughter of the man whose passport is used by him. When he arrives in Paris, he starts searching one of his comrades, Juan, to prevent him from going to Madrid where he could be arrested by Franco's police...

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