Figure 1.--One boy here wears a beret which was still common in France during World War II. The other boy wears a girl's sun smock ("tablier bain de soleil") as he is trying to desguise himself as a girl. Here the two brothers are with the wounded German soldier. |
Jean-Loup Hubertd made "Après la guerre" in 1988. The film depicts how two little boys view the little piece of World War II that they experienced. The boys are two brothers aged about 7 and 9 years old. The film is set during the summer 1944 liberation of France after the Allied Mediterranean landings which followed the better known Normandy landings. The boys live in a small village in southern France. They along with others in the village are waiting for the arrival of the Americans who are moving north. The boys are waiting along the rode outside the village and see a military collum approaching. The boys assume that it is the Americans. Unfortunalely it is in fact a retreating German Germn armored unit. The older boy was dressed in the uniform of a village fanfare (band) that was preparing to welcome the liberating U.S. soldiers. His younger brother was wearing his grey school smock. The two boys after seeing the soldiers run back to village shouting "They arrive". The entire village prepares to celebrate the arrival of the Americans with the band and banners, including the French and U.S. flags. The demoralized German soldiers enter the village and are greeted with the celebration and the enemy flags. They are furious and retaliated by shooting the village mayor. The boys are horrified about what has occurred because of their innocent mistake. They take off for Lyon where they have family.
Jean-Loup Hubertd made "Après la guerre" in 1988. The film depicts how two little boys view the little piece of World War II that they experienced. The boys are two brothers aged about 7 and 9 years old.
Richard Bohringer plays a German deserte. Antoine and Julien Hubert play the two French boys. We do not know a great deal about French child actors. The boys here are the sons of director Jean-Louis Hubert. Antoine previously worked in the important film Le grand chemin (1986). A French reader reports, "The boys played their parts very well. They beautifully expressed the mentality of children from this epoque."
The film is set during the summer 1944 liberation of France after the Allied Mediterranean landings at Marseilles and Nice (August 15) which followed the better known Normandy landings. The boys live in a small village in High-Provence (southern France).
The American capture of Cherbourg placed the first important French port in Allied control (June 27). While the Germans held in Normandy, a huge logistical enterprise was building up a massive army with emense capabilities. The Allies in the first 100 days after D-Day landed an incredible 2.2 million men, 450,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies. This was a force that the Germans could not begin to match and their situation was rendered untenable by the virtual complete lack of air support. The Allied offensive broke the badly streached Germans in July. British and Canadian troops under Montgomery finally captured Caen (July 9). The major break through came further south. Patton's Third Army after a concentrated bombing pierced the German lines with armoured thrusts near St. Lô and rapidly fanned out behind German lines. While American Sherman tanks were inferior to the German tanks, they were fastr and more numerous. Allied air power made it impossible for the Germans to contain the American offensive. German units were foirced to abandon their tanks and flee east. Efforts to surround an entire German army failed when SS units held an escape rour open at Falaise, allowing a substantial part of the Germany forces to escape. American airpower, however, wreked havoc on the retreating Germans. I The Americans landed another force on the French Mediterranean coast between Marseilles and Nice (August 15). The German hold on France was broken. The Paris Ressistance rose up against the German occupation forces as Allied armour divisions raced toward the capital and crossed the Seine. French Forces of the Interior (FFI)attacked Germans retreating through the city. Hitler ordered the city to be destroyed. The German commander refused to carry out the orders. Allied forces entred the city (August 25). The Allies pressed north into Belgium and liberated Brussels (September 2).
The film is based on the expeience of two brothers. The boys are being raised by their uncle. Their mother has be come a prostitue. The brothers along with others in the village are waiting for the arrival of the Americans who are moving north. The boys are waiting along the rode outside the village and see a military collum approaching. The boys assume that it is the Americans. Unfortunalely it is in fact a retreating German Germn armored unit. The older boy was dressed in the uniform of a village fanfare (band) that was preparing to welcome the liberating U.S. soldiers. His younger brother was wearing his grey school smock. The two boys after seeing the soldiers run back to village shouting "They arrive". The entire village prepares to celebrate the arrival of the Americans with the band and banners, including the French and U.S. flags. The demoralized German soldiers enter the village and are greeted with the celebration and the enemy flags. They are furious and retaliated by shooting the village mayor. The boys are horrified about what has occurred because of their innocent mistake. They take off for Lyon where they have family. They encounter a wounded German soldier (Richard Bohlinger) who is absent without leave. He at first forces them to hel, but the boys soon befriend him, but the French resistance members execute him. (The Germans at the time did not recognize the French resistance units as legal combstants and executed many of them captured.)
Boys in the film wear a variety of garments, including berets, short pants, and school smocks. We think berets and schools smocks were especially common in rural villages, probably more than in the big cities. Berets disappeared very rapidly in France After World War II. I'm not sure why. They were, however, still popular in the World War II era. The younger brother and some of the other boys in the village wear berets. These garments and the other outfits worn by the French boys in the film seem reasonably accurate. Antoine Hubert is 10 years old. He wears a sun smock (tablier bain de soleil). This is not a garment that a boy that age would have normally worn. We notice somewhat younger boys wearing sun rompers (barboteuse bain de soleil), but not smocks in this style. He was trying to disguise himself as a little girl so no one would recongnize him. He had changed out of his band uniform. He also wore a little girl's dress ("robe").
I am not sure if this is totally fiction or based on some actual event. It could have happened and the Germans committed attrocities much more serious than the one depicted here. The Germans by August 1944 had been broken in France. German units were retreating throughout France for Germany and the prepared defenses of the Siegfriend line. That meant that various German colums passed through villages throughout France. The villagers would have no way of knowing if any one collum as the last one. Of course they could probably hear the approach of the big guns that accompanied the Allied offensive. Boys that age could have made a mistake like that. It is our experience, however, that boys can be quite knowledgeable about matters that interest them. I recall as a boy about the age of the boys here being expert on the various models of cars and could identify not only the models, but the years. My guess is that most French boys in 1944 could identify German uniforms and the insignias on German military vehichles. It is likely, however, that they woyld be unfamiliar with American uniforms and military vehicles.
We notice one chils character from the film that we can not identify. We are not sure who he is or how he fits into the film. Perhaps it is the brothers' gabby friend. Hopefully our French readers will know.
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