From the moment José Berghmans wonderful music loudly bursts through the opening credits, and we see the French countryside spread out before us, the scene is set for some comedic kid's action. And the film doesn't fail in its presentation of kid's war games as adventures of childhood than the adult realities. Full of French flavour and populated with excitable adults and children, it's a hilarious picture of how children play together. The penalty for being captured is the loss of all your buttons and the method of one gang to avoid this is a hoot! I watched it without sub-titles and although I don't speak French, it still had me in fits of laughter. Petit Gibus is so funny when, plied with Calvados, he gets very drunk and very merry. This is a film that belies the fact that films need computer graphics and violence to be watchable. This film recalls an era when simples games and adventures were all that were needed to fill your days.
Review of War of the Buttons
