In a career spanning 46 years Claude Autant-Lara directed some fifty movies several of which - Le Ble en herbe, L'Auberge Rouge, Fric Frac, Douce, Sylvie et la fantome, Le Diable au corps - are indispensable to any collection of French film classics and no two titles cover the same areas because versatility was a hallmark of Autant-Lara. He had dealt with the Second World War notably in the delicious black comedy La Traversee de Paris but nothing really prepared his admirers for this true story of a saintly man attempting in a very modest way to counter the evil all around him. Hardy Kruger, himself German and a one-time member of the Hitler Youth enjoyed a long if largely undistinguished career in movies but twice he was moved to appear in what may loosely be described as anti-war fare and both here and in Sundays With Cybele he lifted his game. This is a fine film that deserves to be seen by the discriminating viewer.
Review of Le franciscain de Bourges
