La trêve (1973 TV Movie) User Reviews

A lost and totally forgotten little french TV gem

[searchanddestroy-1 · 24 December 2010]

I remember this item in 1973, on X mas day. The tale of a man on custody who is conveyed in a police car through the countryside, in the middle of nowhere, and just during a snow storm. And the police car has an accident because the frozen road. So, the cops and the lead are forced to stay together in the damage car, waiting for the rescue team. They start to talk about their lives, and this is the intermission for both sides. No more police officers and convict...

Interesting point of view.

An I already know that no one will ever comment it.

Such a shame.

There was a time when french TV was creative (so long ago).

[mla195 · 8/10 · 15 October 2019]

I join the other reviewer in his praising of this TV movie and wish to inform that it is now available - for 3 euros - It was specially ordered to Jean Cosmos, one of the greatest writers of french cinema, to be broadcasted on Xmas day 1973 : these were glorious days when french TV could both create artistically and entertain the largest audience.

The story is that of a serial escapist (PierreTrabaud) blocked with the cop conveying him back to jail (Maurice Bourbon) after a car accident in a snow-covered moutain countryside in the center of France (Lozère). The background is war captivity where Trabaud's found his compulsive seek for freedom and aim for revenge.

As always with Cosmos, the story is original and captivating and dialogs accurate and witty. I was impressed by the performance of Pierre Trabaud who is on screen almost all the 80 minutes-long film, most of the time inside the car with the good support from Maurice Bourbon. Just one scene is outside the car with a cameo by the great stage actress Martine Sarcey. Trabaud is largely forgotten today, and was never a star actor (probably being barred by a short stature) but his voice was in every ears thanks to innumerable radio shows and dubbing he did over decades (among them the french voices of Popeye and Daffy Duck). But seeing him in La Trêve makes me regret he was only given minor roles (see him in Becker's Rendez-vous de juillet), to the exception of Leo Joannon's Le Désert de Pigalle (1958) .