nicholas.rhodes Review of Strange Gardens

Strange Gardens (2003)

Original Subject Matter - generally worth a view

[8/10 · 1 July 2007]

The least that one can say about this film is that the subject matter is fairly original .... Sometime in the late fifties in the St Etienne area of France, a young lad is fed up with seeing his dad dress up as a clown at regular intervals. One day, when the boy is sufficiently of age, one of his dad's friends explains to him the origin of this practice .. during the German occupation of France, both his dad and his friend had sabotaged a signal box in an attempt to "do their bit" for the resistance movement. Unfortunately, they are rounded up by the Germans and thrown to the bottom of a big pit with a couple of others until the the those responsible for the sabotage come forward. During the time they spent at the bottom of the pit, one of the German guards befriends them - indeed he is hardly cut out to be a soldier, being more pacifist and above-all clown like. When ordered by his superiors to shoot the men at the bottom of the pit, he refuses to do so, and pays dearly for this refusal with his own life. On dying, his clown's (red) nose falls into the pit and is recuperated by one of the prisoners who is the boy's father ( played by the late and much missed Jacques Villeret ). This episode will forever mark Villeret's life, and his son, on learning this episode of his dad's life will henceforth see his father in a totally different light. So much for the script, which is based, I think, upon a novel. The film is generally very good - I found some passages overlong when our friends are at the bottom of the pit, plus the fact of people speaking in the dark ends up tiring me - but apart from this, the film is quite touching and I had tears in my eyes at the end - I don't know why exactly but it was probably due to the high level of emotion distilled generally rather than to one particular event. In addition to this the theme music is subtle and most agreable to listen to. I have always liked Villeret, Dussolier and Lhermitte as actors. As to Magimel, I had not before heard of him and liked him less than the others. The film is currently available on DVD in France at very cheap prices but from what I can see is not available in this medium elsewhere in the world. It seems to have been made in the village of Palussin in the Loire Department, not that far from LYon and getting on for the Drôme department. The scenes in the "pit" would appear, as far as I can make out, to have been made in the "Carrières Fayol" ( Fayol Company Quarries ) near to a place called Larnage which is slightly further south in the Drôme department and near to the city of Tournon. The sabotage of the signal box and other railway scenes were made in the Limousin area but I am not sure of what village ! Becker has made a number of films recently, not least "Les Enfants du Marais" which I found rather static and boring if visually pleasant, and the much better an more incisive 'Un Crime au Paradis" which from what I can gather, has more international renown than Effroyables Jardins and which is none other than a remake of the Sacha Guitry classic "Le POison".