The Old Gun
Set in 1944, in Montauban during World War II, Julien Dandieu is a surgeon at the local hospital. Alarmed by the German army advancing, he asks his friend Francois to drive his wife and daughter to a rural village where he keeps an old castle. A week later, Julien decides to meet them for the weekend, but the village is already under German occupation.
Director(s)
Robert Enrico
Claire Denis
Cast & Crew
Details
Reviews
CinemaSerf
The Allies are closing in on their small town, but not quite quickly enough for the liking of local surgeon “Dandieu” (Philippe Noiret) so he relocates his wife and daughter to their remote castle, well off the beaten track, in the hope that they can sit out the rest of the war safely. When he takes a drive out to see them some time after, he arrives at it’s small chapel to be met by a vision of carnage. Racing to the castle, he gets there just in time to see the brutality of the Nazis at their worst and immediately vows revenge. Just how, though, can this civilised old gent possibly inflict any sort of vengeance on this well armed troop? Well, for a start he has an old shotgun that had been carefully hidden amidst the tunnels beneath the building. Then there are these particularly useful tunnels themselves; there’s a secret passageway up into the salon and finally, he’s an ingenious chap who considers that he now has very little left to lose. Fuelled by some intermittent reminiscences of life with his wife (Romy Schneider) and nimble on his feet, Noiret now proceeds to present us with an almost entertaining rabbit-shoot of a scenario before a denouement that is entirely fitting and yet touching, too. There’s not a great deal of dialogue: the imagery does enough of the speaking, and the whole scenario paints quite a potent picture of the dangers faced by many decent people whose lives were terrorised by these brutes during WWII. It also touches, slightly, on the psychological effects of what he witnessed and their aftermath: his sense of purpose serving to divert his realisation of just what had happened long enough to get the job done. Schneider doesn’t feature so often, but when she does she not only lights up the production but her character’s brief appearances emphasise just how ghastly and inhumane their occupiers really were, and that presence is also well epitomised by Joachim Hansen’s SS officer. Some attention has gone into the look of the film and with a Noiret very much on-form, it’s well worth a watch.
The Old Gun FAQs
The directors of The Old Gun are Robert Enrico and Claire Denis.
The cast of The Old Gun includes Robert Hoffmann as German Lieutenant, Romy Schneider as Clara Dandieu, Karl Michael Vogler as Dr. Müller, Joachim Hansen as SS Officer, Philippe Noiret as Julien Dandieu, Antoine Saint-John as Le soldat allemand tué dans la cuisine, Jean Bouise as François, Caroline Bonhomme as Florence Dandieu (8 years old), Catherine Delaporte as Florence Dandieu (13 years old), Madeleine Ozeray as Mme Dandieu, la mère de Julien, Jean-Paul Cisife as Le chef milicien, Jean-Pierre Garrigues as Un interne à l’hôpital, and more.
The duration of The Old Gun is 1h 43 mins.
The Old Gun was released on 20 Aug 1975.
The Old Gun is listed under Drama and History on Fanbiz.
The Old Gun has 1 review on Fanziz, with an average rating of 7.0/10. One reviewer wrote: "The Allies are closing in on their small town, but not quite quickly enough for the liking of local surgeon “Dandieu” (Philippe Noiret) so he relocates his wife and daughter to..."
