If all you knew about this prior to watching it was that the title translates as The Burning Barns you might be forgiven for anticipating a touch of the Southern Gothics, especially if you were on nodding terms with Faulkner and Tennessee Williams both of whom have written about barn burning as if it were a minor Art form requiring both skill and finesse and at worst a semi-respectable/legitimate occupation. You would, however, soon be disabused because what we have here is yet another story in a rural setting - in this case the Jura - involving a large family headed by matriarch Simone Signoret who owns a farm named The Burning Barns. The body of a young woman is discovered on land owned by Signoret and serves as a springboard to put the somewhat dysfunctional family under a microscope. Alain Delon arrives to head the investigation and the fun/fascination is watching two generations of French actors teaming up again in the wake of the previous year's success Le Veuve Coudroc. There's little in the way of thriller, mystery element but Signoret and Delon are augmented by the likes of Paul Crachet (who appeared with Signoret in L'Armee des Ombres), a young and almost unrecognizable Bernard Le Coq, Miou-Miou and Signoret's real-life daughter Catherine Allegret. It's very watchable and definitely recommended.
Review of Les granges brûlées
