Les croix de bois (1932)
(Wooden Crosses)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 115m
Director: Raymond Bernard
Cast: Pierre Blanchar, Charles Vanel, Gabriel Gabrio
Synopsis:
The experiences of a French platoon engaged in a war of attrition with a largely unseen enemy.
Review:
Slow to start, pausing regularly to take stock of character building antics among the men, Bernard's formidable early sound film achievement features vivid battle scenes with an imaginatively mobile camera, and on the whole makes its anti-war points subtly and without recourse to the cris de coeur of The Big Parade, for example. High points include an undermining episode rarely depicted in the genre, and a night combat in and around a village cemetery. It is not on a level with All Quiet on the Western Front in terms of narrative grip, but affords a differing, more impressionistic vision of the hell Kubrick was to provide the epitome for in Paths of Glory. It is highly likely, also, that Jean-Pierre Jeunet's trench scenes in Un long dimanche de fiançailles found some inspiration in an earlier viewing of this impressive work, which itself was a self-conscious response to Milestone and Pabst's more or less contemporaneous versions.
(Wooden Crosses)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 115m
Director: Raymond Bernard
Cast: Pierre Blanchar, Charles Vanel, Gabriel Gabrio
Synopsis:
The experiences of a French platoon engaged in a war of attrition with a largely unseen enemy.
Review:
Slow to start, pausing regularly to take stock of character building antics among the men, Bernard's formidable early sound film achievement features vivid battle scenes with an imaginatively mobile camera, and on the whole makes its anti-war points subtly and without recourse to the cris de coeur of The Big Parade, for example. High points include an undermining episode rarely depicted in the genre, and a night combat in and around a village cemetery. It is not on a level with All Quiet on the Western Front in terms of narrative grip, but affords a differing, more impressionistic vision of the hell Kubrick was to provide the epitome for in Paths of Glory. It is highly likely, also, that Jean-Pierre Jeunet's trench scenes in Un long dimanche de fiançailles found some inspiration in an earlier viewing of this impressive work, which itself was a self-conscious response to Milestone and Pabst's more or less contemporaneous versions.
(Wooden Crosses)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 115m
Director: Raymond Bernard
Cast: Pierre Blanchar, Charles Vanel, Gabriel Gabrio
Synopsis:
The experiences of a French platoon engaged in a war of attrition with a largely unseen enemy.
Review:
Slow to start, pausing regularly to take stock of character building antics among the men, Bernard's formidable early sound film achievement features vivid battle scenes with an imaginatively mobile camera, and on the whole makes its anti-war points subtly and without recourse to the cris de coeur of The Big Parade, for example. High points include an undermining episode rarely depicted in the genre, and a night combat in and around a village cemetery. It is not on a level with All Quiet on the Western Front in terms of narrative grip, but affords a differing, more impressionistic vision of the hell Kubrick was to provide the epitome for in Paths of Glory. It is highly likely, also, that Jean-Pierre Jeunet's trench scenes in Un long dimanche de fiançailles found some inspiration in an earlier viewing of this impressive work, which itself was a self-conscious response to Milestone and Pabst's more or less contemporaneous versions.