BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

writers_reign Claude Berri has been gracing French cinema as Producer, Writer, Actor and Director for several years and it's a given that at least two or three of his movies are on every discerning viewer's 'Best' list and I don't necessarily mean the obvious, i.e. Jean de Florette and its other half Manon but things like Lucie Aubrac which is also set in Occupied France as is this gem. The idea of teaming a Senior Citizen with a child is far from new and far from played out, witness Papillon less than a decade ago, but it is, by definition, tricky and the trick is in finding a suitable child. Berri struck oil with Alain Cohen and all he had to do was pair him with Michel Simon and the movie practically made itself. That, of course, is the impression an audience gets when a master filmmaker like Berri is on bullhorn. I can add little to the praise, merely second it. A great movie.

gelman@attglobal.net This tale of a young Jewish boy sent into the French country side to avoid the possibility/likelihood of a round up of Jews by the Vichy Government parallels Claude Berri's personal experience, I believe. It says at the very beginning of the film that it is an experience seen in retrospect from the vantage point of the child. So, while it is sentimentalized as another commenter wrote on this site, that's what one might expect from a grown up looking back at the adventures of his eight or nine year old self. This is definitely NOT a straight forward narrative from an uninvolved scriptwriter/director. The "Grandfather" with whom the child is lodged hates Jews. He claims to be able to recognize them by their smell, their hooked noses, etc. The role of the Grandfather is brilliantly executed by Michel Simon. Filmed in the sixties in black and white, it still appears occasionally at Jewish film festivals under the title "The Two of Us." While you may despise the Grandfather's bigotry, he's also portrayed as loving toward the boy and lovable. The connection between the Grandfather and the boy, portrayed by Alain Cohen, is actually quite touching. A brief scene at the very end seems to indicate that the boy was reunited with his parents after the war but it passes by so quickly that I'd have to see it again in a stop frame to be sure that the faces of the parents are real and not imagined. Not a great movie, but definitely worth seeing.

MarioB I remember seeing this movie when I as a teenager (say, about 1970) and I was then very moved by this warm and tender drama. Nearly 30 years later, I just saw it on TV and I didn't change my mind : this is a very good movie, in the way French can say a lot of things in this kind of day-to-day film. The chemistry between young Cohen and veteran Simon is beautiful. It's also filled with references to the way people in France lived the Second world war, like Simon hating Jews and didn't know that is young friend Berry is a Jew. I love Michel Simon. He had been such a great actor from the second half of the 1920's to his death, in the middle 1970's. He was always good in his films, so natural that we don't think he's acting. Le vieil homme et l'enfant is a very intelligent movie for young director Berri, who will be famous as a director and producer in the next years.

patate-2 Cute. Tender and somewhat kitch. A showcase for 72 years old Michel Simon, an important Swiss actor of silent and early talking films. Double bill with Sound of Music. They go well together with war, kids, frightening adults and tender moments. A film for the church lady.