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Le cheval d'orgueil (1980) Online

Le cheval d'orgueil (1980) Online
1980 Jacques Dufilho Bernadette Le Saché François Cluzet Claude Chabrol
Original Title :
Le cheval du0027orgueil
Genre :
Movie / Drama
Year :
1980
Directror :
Claude Chabrol
Cast :
Jacques Dufilho,Bernadette Le Saché,François Cluzet
Writer :
Pierre-Jakez Helias,Daniel Boulanger
Type :
Movie
Time :
2h
Rating :
6.3/10

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Le cheval d'orgueil (1980) Online

In early twentieth-century Brittany, two peasants marry, have a son, and live in traditional Breton ways: three generations under one roof, a division of labor between the sexes, elders' stories at night, politics and religion during their little free time. Times are hard: la Chienne du Monde drives some to suicide; Ankou (death) is close at hand. Pierre is born into this republican family, his lyric childhood interrupted by the outbreak of war and his father's conscription. He learns his catechism and, as a child of a Reds, also reveres school. His grandfather and father often put him on their shoulders, giving him a ride on the horse of pride.
Cast overview, first billed only:
Jacques Dufilho Jacques Dufilho - Alain, le grand-père
Bernadette Le Saché Bernadette Le Saché - Anne-Marie, la mère
François Cluzet François Cluzet - Pierre-Alain, le père
Paul Le Person Paul Le Person - Gourgon, le facteur
Pierre Le Rumeur Pierre Le Rumeur - Le conteur
Michel Robin Michel Robin - Le marquis
Ronan Hubert Ronan Hubert - Pierre-Jacques à 7 ans
Armel Hubert Armel Hubert - Pierre-Jacques à 11 ans
Dominique Lavanant Dominique Lavanant - Marie-Jeanne, la sage-femme
Michel Blanc Michel Blanc - Corentin Calvez
Georges Wilson Georges Wilson - Récitant / Narrator (voice)
Jean-Claude Bouillaud Jean-Claude Bouillaud
Laurence Caubet Laurence Caubet
Jacques Chailleux Jacques Chailleux - Jeannot les mille métiers
Odile Chapal Odile Chapal

Originally, Claude Chabrol was working on a film project on the peasants of the Creuse at the beginning of the twentieth century. After reading the best-seller "Le Cheval d'orgueil: Mémoires d'un Breton du pays bigouden" (The Horse of Pride: Life in a Breton Village) by Pierre-Jakez Helias, he decided to change the location and the history to that of the book which depicts rural Brittany at the beginning of the twentieth century, in the years preceding the First World War. The adaptation, entrusted to Daniel Boulanger, focuses on the autobiographical part and tells the story of Pierre.

The film was badly received by French critics on its release. It is very rarely broadcast on French television, and it has never had its own release on DVD in France. The French DVD releases bundle it as a double feature with Landru (1963), or with Тихие дни в Клиши (1990), both directed by Claude Chabrol too.

Claude Chabrol's greatest regret for this film was that he did not have the audacity to make the movie in the Breton language. It is true since using the French language forced him into some contortions (see the scene where little Pierre is reluctant to learn French at school). However, this film remains a faithful adaptation to the work of Pierre-Jakez Helias and a fascinating painting of a region with a strong identity.

René Vautier and Nicole Le Garrec began filming their version of "Le cheval d'orgueil" in 1977, shooting was interrupted because of disputes with production and the project fell through.


User reviews

Clever

Clever

Based on a novel by Pierre-Jakez Hélias. A small Breton community before and during the First World War – mostly very idyllic, despite periods of hard luck, poverty and despair (la chienne de monde). The young couple (both blessed with lovely smiles) and their child, the narrator. Many sweet and funny scenes, as well as a few sad ones. The soft-hearted postman cannot bear to read letters bringing bad news. The title comes from a family saying; they're too poor to own a horse, but they have the horse of pride – the child rides on his father's shoulders. Better than any horse, the boy says at the end. There is tension in the schools about speaking French, not Breton. The family are reds, proud and liberty-loving. Beautiful pace, photography, costumes...
Galanjov

Galanjov

This is a thoroughly wonderful movie made, unfortunately, for a steadily shrinking audience. Pier-Jakes Helias' Chevel d'orgueil is not a novel, but a memoire that recounts not just one child's life, but the entire culture in which he lived, inland Brittany (l'Argoat) primarily before World War I. The movie has no plot as such. It is a series of vignettes that illustrate, very well, different aspects of Breton inland life at the time. The dialogue is sometimes in Breton, sometimes in French, depending (largely but not always) on what language the characters would actually have spoken in a given situation.

The unfortunate thing about this very good movie is that it really doesn't explain the culture it presents, it just presents it. As a result, if you are not already familiar with the culture it presents, a lot of it will not mean very much to you. While I generally don't like voice-over commentary, this is one movie that, for most non-Breton viewers, would greatly benefit from one.

So, a wonderful movie. But, I concede, one that will not mean a lot to those not already immersed in inland Breton culture.
Jarortr

Jarortr

Though I watched this in French, without the benefit of subtitles even in that language, I have to say that it emerges as the least Chabrol ever! While occasionally changing tack completely from the thrillers he was best-known (and admired) for, this pastoral drama in a period setting was as far removed from his 'comfort zone' as could be imagined.

Consequently, it is hard to fathom what the director thought he was doing here or intended in the first place – given that the end result is plot less, excruciatingly dull and comes with an obscure title to boot! Maybe Chabrol was after some prestigious award, which were not so freely handed out to the essentially commercial fare he usually dabbled in.

Anyway, what we get is an irrefutably meticulous and reasonably affectionate recreation of a particular past era – Brittany at the time of WWI – but, in spite of its (expected) appealing photography, at almost two hours, the documentary approach is positively deadening. The simple events in the daily life of the inhabitants hardly elicit a response from the viewer, other than as a waste of time alas. Frankly, the image that has stuck with me a week after viewing this is the fact that, for no discernible reason, the peasants involved sleep in hanging cupboards!