This is the only one of the recent spate of French films set in WW11 that employs the flashback. Ostensibly it is set vaguely in the 60s and finds teenager Damien Jouillerot hacked off at schoolteacher father Jacques Villeret, who persists in acting the clown both in the classroom and the annual fete. Cue Villeret's best friend, Andre Dussolier to set the kid straight which segues nicely into a flashback to the closing days of WW11. The three leads, Villeret, Dussolier and Thierry Lhermiite are given first names that correspond to their own and although I haven't read the novella on which it is based it would be stretching coincidence to somewhere just this side of Mindanao if the three principals just happened to be named Jacques, Andre and Thierry. Nevertheless the ensemble cast work together splendidly, not least the two femmes, Suzanne Flon and Isabelle Candelier. Despite the central premise - a wimpish father revealed to have a more substantial side, think Atticus Finch in 'To Kill A Mockingbird' - that verges on the clichéd the central performances and ever present warmth, charm, and ensemble playing (and if you've ever tried to play an ensemble you'll know how difficult it is) lift it out of the run of the milieu. The central revelation, that Villeret is, in effect, doing the act that a humane German guard performed when the trio (plus Benoit Magimal) were close to execution, even so far as using the same red nose that belonged to the German (who was himself executed by his comrades for failing to execute the quartet) is slipped in seamlessly and unobtrusively. Recommended.
Review of Strange Gardens
