The Return of Martin Guerre (1982)

There is nothing really wrong with this popular and prestigious French period movie. It's just that there is also not much about it to make you sit up and take notice. It's perfection on a small scale. At the very least, it does a good job of transporting you to a poor French village in the mid-1500s. And it has great performances by esteemed French actors. But if you have, by any chance, seen the US remake first ("Sommersby"), you already know the answer to the is-he-or-isn't-he? question that is at the center of the movie. I believe if you don't know the answer, you might rate this higher. For me, it's a **1/2 out of 4.

An intriguing premise, fitting music, and a solid performance by Nathalie Baye make this okay viewing overall, but it is terribly overlong, since the premise just does not have enough in it to last for a two-hour length. The situations and various issues that arise are interesting at first, but it all becomes a bit repetitive, drawn out and monotonous as the film progresses. This was a breakthrough piece for Gérard Depardieu, who does quite a good job, and the film was Academy Award nominated for its apt costumes too. It is quite competently made, and certainly quite watchable, despite somewhat awkward narration and thrills and excitement that are only intermittent. I cannot help but feel however that as a short film the material would have worked better. Either way, it is still worth a look.

OK. This is not a remake of "carrefour", as many may think. This is the actual story, on which carrefour was based, from 16th century France, it just happens to have been transferred to film after the other adaptation. Go read the book if you're at all interested, it's by Janet Lewis and is called "The Wife of Martin Guerre". The story is based on court documents among other things, and the character names in this film are those of the actual people. Don't get confused- carrefour may have been made before this film, but this is the closer adaptation and, thus, should not be labeled a remake.

I've seen this film twice, once in French with no subtitles (my French is poor but as I recall the movie intrigued me), and with English sub-titles.Without the distraction of reading the sub-titles the film is a nicely crafted period piece, and in reference to Monty Python, no kings are anywhere in sight. A man returns from war, claims to be Martin, there is general uneasiness in the village, as it turns out this guy gives himself away by being way too nice. The shoemaker blows his cover by discovering his feet are too small. The wifedoesn't complain, I guess not everything was two sizes smaller. He's tried for murdering the real Martin, who turns out to be alive, but he's executed essentially for identity theft. And he didn't even run up his credit cards, which seems a bit severe.The NY Times has this on their list of 1000 best films ever, which mystifies me. One nice touch about the NY times list is a warm place for quirky independent films, like Repo Man, My Life as a Dog, Desperately Seeking Susan. I could go for that. But what I found bizarre was that this was the only "return" film on their list. I'll buy that ROTK wasn't out yet (except that most Times reviewers claim to be omniscient), but to snub Return of the Jedi? The IMDb claimed 399, 239titles last time I looked, and I'd place this solidly towards the middle, maybe even in the top 100,000.