... also 'spoiled' in the following review. (Warning)
Indeed, "Strange Gardens" is bound to inspire the inevitable comparison as a poignant tragicomedy with WW2 as a backdrop. "Life is Beautiful" was about Guido, literally a guide preserving not only his son's life but his spirit in the worst possible setting: a death camp, using the only weapon he was blessed of : humor, the best of humanity against its worst, fair trade.
"Strange Gardens" is a no-less inspiring version of "Life is Beautiful" for it tells, in a flashback, during the Occupation, the story of Jacques, played by the late French actor with the lovable buffoon's face, Jacques Villeret and the misadventure he lived with his friends André (André Dussolier), Thierry (his no-nonsense partner in "The Dinner", Thierry Lhermitte) and a young resistant, Emile, played by Benoit Magimel. "Life is Beautiful" was narrated in flashback and that it was the son's adult voice didn't leave much for optimism regarding his father's fate. But in "Strange Gardens", we know they lived, but the point isn't about survival, but a life-changing experience.
The storyteller is André who just realized Jacques' son's embarrassment while his father was performing a clown number during a summer village festival. André explains the little boy that his father's vocation has a deeper meaning and the film's poster gives a clue (hopefully, someone will put it on IMDb) it's a red clown nose under a German soldier's helmet, a reminiscent of the Hippie sign and 'Born to Kill' in "Full Metal Jacket". We have the juxtaposition of the necessities of war and those of life, fighting versus laughing, something that divides and something that unites people. Surely, you can't be a soldier and a clown, and any German who'd rather act like a buffoon than a Nazi, is liable to be called a hero.
"Strange Gardens" intelligently puts a new perspective on the hackneyed concept of heroism. In the village of Douai, Jacques and André are two bachelor friends who try to live their life peacefully, but their virile pride is tickled when the local pretty girl Louise (Isabelle Candelier) expresses her admiration toward young men from the Resistance, who risk their life for their country. The two men desperately invoke self-preservation, and realism but they know, deep inside that a man not afraid to die is just too romantic for women's words. So like two bratty kids, they decide to have a little fun, and contribute to the Resistance. They make their bones by throwing a bottle of wine on a German train passing under the bridge and as they hide, they can feel the exhilaration.
So they go for a more ambitious and risky project, probably driven by the enthusiastic pride of having to tell that story to Louise. They sabotage a signal box with explosives, an old French railroad worker is injured, but they manage to run away. But as a common act of vengeance, the Germans pick four villagers as hostages; giving an ultimate chance to the saboteurs to reveal their identities. Ironically, André and Jacques are among the selected prisoners, besides Thierry, the insurance banker and the young Emile. They're all put in a deep clay pit; like the one Poitier and Curtis had to climb up in "The Defiant Ones", but the four men can't as the soil is too watery. They're literally stuck in the hole waiting for any help.
Some heroes, indeed who basically tried to be ones for wrong reasons: to impress a girl and then jeopardizing the lives of innocent men who were so honorable they couldn't even believe them when they admitted their guilt. But now, they're in a situation begging for a hero. And the first salvation cord will come from the most unlikely person: a German. Bendt (Bernard Collins) loves France perhaps as much as he loves life and joy and provides the four ill-fated friends a few tastes of sausages, wine, and fun through a slapstick performance, like a last good meal before the execution. They laugh together, brag about their cultural differences as if war never existed and at that point of the film, it hits the same sensitive chord as "Life is Beautiful", and instinctively, we feel there shall be a deadly cost for the four men's lives.
Indeed, the injured worker at the edge of death will volunteer to take the blame in order to save what he thinks are innocent people, but this sacrifice could've been useless as in the same time, German soldiers were already aiming their rifles at the four Frenchmen trying to cover from a certain death. Their life handed on a nick of time, still, enough time for Bendt to keep his rifle low, to disobey the orders and put his clown nose instead, as a last F-you to the whole crappiness of War. Bendt being shot had the same feeling than Guido's off-screen execution, two generous souls dying because they had to hide someone dear from an evil attention. This is what heroism is about, straightforward, disinterested and mercilessly lethal. Both the old worker and Bendt sacrificed themselves; and teach a lesson about the true meaning of heroism.
After the emotional climax, the movie tends to sustain more than the time needed; there had to be a scene where the two men admit their guilt to the worker's widow but their hesitation is rather awkward as you'd think they could at least had the guts to do something that didn't put their lives at stakes. Suzanne Fion, who plays the widow, forgives them with a look begging them to earn these sacrifices. This is why Jacques became a clown and why at the end, the kid finally smiles as he sees his father.
Like Villeret himself, Jacques uses his amicable rotund appearance to remind us that to laugh is the proper of a man, and as long as there are men
Indeed, "Strange Gardens" is bound to inspire the inevitable comparison as a poignant tragicomedy with WW2 as a backdrop. "Life is Beautiful" was about Guido, literally a guide preserving not only his son's life but his spirit in the worst possible setting: a death camp, using the only weapon he was blessed of : humor, the best of humanity against its worst, fair trade.
"Strange Gardens" is a no-less inspiring version of "Life is Beautiful" for it tells, in a flashback, during the Occupation, the story of Jacques, played by the late French actor with the lovable buffoon's face, Jacques Villeret and the misadventure he lived with his friends André (André Dussolier), Thierry (his no-nonsense partner in "The Dinner", Thierry Lhermitte) and a young resistant, Emile, played by Benoit Magimel. "Life is Beautiful" was narrated in flashback and that it was the son's adult voice didn't leave much for optimism regarding his father's fate. But in "Strange Gardens", we know they lived, but the point isn't about survival, but a life-changing experience.
The storyteller is André who just realized Jacques' son's embarrassment while his father was performing a clown number during a summer village festival. André explains the little boy that his father's vocation has a deeper meaning and the film's poster gives a clue (hopefully, someone will put it on IMDb) it's a red clown nose under a German soldier's helmet, a reminiscent of the Hippie sign and 'Born to Kill' in "Full Metal Jacket". We have the juxtaposition of the necessities of war and those of life, fighting versus laughing, something that divides and something that unites people. Surely, you can't be a soldier and a clown, and any German who'd rather act like a buffoon than a Nazi, is liable to be called a hero.
"Strange Gardens" intelligently puts a new perspective on the hackneyed concept of heroism. In the village of Douai, Jacques and André are two bachelor friends who try to live their life peacefully, but their virile pride is tickled when the local pretty girl Louise (Isabelle Candelier) expresses her admiration toward young men from the Resistance, who risk their life for their country. The two men desperately invoke self-preservation, and realism but they know, deep inside that a man not afraid to die is just too romantic for women's words. So like two bratty kids, they decide to have a little fun, and contribute to the Resistance. They make their bones by throwing a bottle of wine on a German train passing under the bridge and as they hide, they can feel the exhilaration.
So they go for a more ambitious and risky project, probably driven by the enthusiastic pride of having to tell that story to Louise. They sabotage a signal box with explosives, an old French railroad worker is injured, but they manage to run away. But as a common act of vengeance, the Germans pick four villagers as hostages; giving an ultimate chance to the saboteurs to reveal their identities. Ironically, André and Jacques are among the selected prisoners, besides Thierry, the insurance banker and the young Emile. They're all put in a deep clay pit; like the one Poitier and Curtis had to climb up in "The Defiant Ones", but the four men can't as the soil is too watery. They're literally stuck in the hole waiting for any help.
Some heroes, indeed who basically tried to be ones for wrong reasons: to impress a girl and then jeopardizing the lives of innocent men who were so honorable they couldn't even believe them when they admitted their guilt. But now, they're in a situation begging for a hero. And the first salvation cord will come from the most unlikely person: a German. Bendt (Bernard Collins) loves France perhaps as much as he loves life and joy and provides the four ill-fated friends a few tastes of sausages, wine, and fun through a slapstick performance, like a last good meal before the execution. They laugh together, brag about their cultural differences as if war never existed and at that point of the film, it hits the same sensitive chord as "Life is Beautiful", and instinctively, we feel there shall be a deadly cost for the four men's lives.
Indeed, the injured worker at the edge of death will volunteer to take the blame in order to save what he thinks are innocent people, but this sacrifice could've been useless as in the same time, German soldiers were already aiming their rifles at the four Frenchmen trying to cover from a certain death. Their life handed on a nick of time, still, enough time for Bendt to keep his rifle low, to disobey the orders and put his clown nose instead, as a last F-you to the whole crappiness of War. Bendt being shot had the same feeling than Guido's off-screen execution, two generous souls dying because they had to hide someone dear from an evil attention. This is what heroism is about, straightforward, disinterested and mercilessly lethal. Both the old worker and Bendt sacrificed themselves; and teach a lesson about the true meaning of heroism.
After the emotional climax, the movie tends to sustain more than the time needed; there had to be a scene where the two men admit their guilt to the worker's widow but their hesitation is rather awkward as you'd think they could at least had the guts to do something that didn't put their lives at stakes. Suzanne Fion, who plays the widow, forgives them with a look begging them to earn these sacrifices. This is why Jacques became a clown and why at the end, the kid finally smiles as he sees his father.
Like Villeret himself, Jacques uses his amicable rotund appearance to remind us that to laugh is the proper of a man, and as long as there are men