French Movies: La guerre des boutons (1961/95)


Figure 1.--Louis Pergaud's La guerre des boutons provides information on the clothing worn by French village children in the 1950s. This is a scene from the 1960s film. Many of the boysd appear to be wearing school smocks.

A famous book made into a movie is Louis Pergaud's La guerre des boutons (The War of Buttons). It was an anti-war book made into a film describing war between the kids of two villages where our hero invented the war trophy of all buttons of trousers/smocks. The movie was made by Louis Malle and is very descriptive of French kids and a result French boys' clothing is extensively illustrated, including the smocks that were still commonly worn in the years in which the book was set. A remake of the movie filmed in Ireland was released in 1995 amid some controversy.

Filmology

"La Guerre des boutons" (War of the Buttons) is a notablen French film directed by Yves Robert in 1961. The film was awarded France's prestigious Prix Jean Vigo. Rovert made the film as the vicious guerrilla war in Algeriaas coming to a conclusion, almost sparking civil war in France itself. Robert's frcesion to make the film was centered in his opposition to the War. And the controversy surrounding the Wr made it impossivle for him to finance the production. He finally had to set up his own production company. His wife, Danièle Delorme, ssisted him. Nor could he find a French distributor. Robert finally turned to an American Company--Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers was noted for handling controversial, cutting edge subjecrts. They did not anticipate any substantial commercial success. In fact, "War of the Buttons" was a spectacukar success. The box office was 10 million paid viewers. This made it the second most popular French film at the time. And it had an huge international run. Thiswas Robert's first critical success. Another of his films based on a opilar book was "La Gloire de mon père and Le Château de ma mère" (1990).

Algerian Civil War

Algeria was the center of French power in North Africa. At the time of World War II, Algeria was a part of France and not a French colony. The French Government had promoted French colonization and there was a substantial French population in Algeria. Political power was in the hands of the French. The French saw the local Islamic people as backwards and inferior and were very suspicious of them. The local Algerian population were French subjects, but not French citizens with political rights. French policy was acculturation. The French Government after the War attempted to revive the political process. This proved futile. The Algerian nationalists were increasingly demanding independence while the French settlers continued to oppose even basic civil rights for Muslims. And the French after their humiliation in Vietnam (1953) were determined to hold Algeria. The result was armed revolution and a vicious, debilitating guerilla war which took on the character of a civil war.

Cast

The boys in both films are laregely untrained actors.

Book

The films are based on a popular novel of the same name. The author is Louis Pergaud (1882-1915). Perguard was killed in action during World War I (1915). His books reflect his fervent anti-militarism. This was one of several books that appeared after World War I. The revulgence of militarism following World War I seemed to center on the idea that war was senceless and avoidable. Perhaps World War I was. The French were to find in 1940 that not all wars are senseless.

Story Line

The book describes a fight between the kids of two neigboring French villages. This is not a new struggle. two villages of Longueverne and Velrans have been rivals for generations. And this has been reflected in the attitudes of fhe children. Of course war between groups of children may seem amusing, but the boys pursue it with the same verve and spirit as their fathers making war. They battle each other as representatives for the "republic" or for the "monarchy" after school. The conflict begins a playful scuffles, but escalate. A boy invented the war trophy of all buttons, shoelaces and belts of anyone they capture. The loser thus has the humiliation of having his buttons cut off by the winner. The buttons become battle trophies. Victory in the war will go to the army which manages to pile up the greatest quantity of the spoils. Since for the most part these are rural kids with families from modest income fmilirs, the boys have only one pair of pants. And he must ask his mother to sew on his buttons. And after a while the mothers begin to lose patience. After one of the boys is beaten by his father for having lost his buttons again, the leader of the Longueverne army, Lebrac, sees how this can be avoided and the Velrans army defeated. He and his comrads will take off their clothes before attacking. Apparently the plot is meant to explore the tendency of children to take on the identity and social foibles of their parents.

Location

The book was set in the French countryside. It concerns the children of two rural French villages. The film was remade in Ireland (1994). The remake sets the events in Ireland.


Figure 2.--Most of the boys in the film wear short pants. Quite a nyumber wear sandals. Very few boys wear kneesocks.

Movies

Pergaud's book has been made into two movies. The first was a 1961 film and then a 1995 remake. We are not sure why a remake was necessary. Perhaps there is an advanyage in having an English-language version, but the Irish version lacks much of the charm of the French original.

1961 film

The 1961 movie based on the book was made by Louis Malle and is very descriptive of French kids and a result French boys' clothing is extensively illustrated, including the smocks that were still commonly worn in the years in which the book was set. The film was made in 1961 as La Guerre des boutons staring Jacques Dufilho, Yvette Étiévant, Michel Galabru, Michèle Méritz, Jean Richard, Pierre Tchernia, Pierre Trabaud, Claude Confortès, Paul Crauchet, Henri Labussière, Yves Peneau, Robert Rollis, Louisette Rousseau, François Boyer, Marie-Catherine Faburel, Michel Isella, François Lartigue, Martin Lartigue, André Treton As in the book, two bands of boys from nearby villages just can't get along, battle each other after school, remove the buttons of those they capture to humiliate their prisoners. As things escalate between them, can a common bound be found?

1995 remake

A remake of the movie filmed in Ireland was released in 1995 amid some controversy. One reviewer prefers the 1995 remake. He says, "If you prefer "modern" cinema, stick with the remake, but if you can appreciate a good-old original, make sure to check this one out. The two are quite similar, but there are a few differences which should interest any real "buff." One thing I noticed about the Irish remake is that it was introduced as the reminisces of a woman in her 20s (voice of Dervla Kirwan) who supposedly later married one of the protagonists; in keeping with that they seem to have made some effort to keep mid to late 1980s and '90s cars off the streets when shooting (easy as Ireland made a major change to their license plates in about 1987 and most older vehicles still have the older style), and avoid any obviously '90s clothing. As for clothes, the boys from the "heroes" town don't have a school uniform but do have a school tie (how common is that?) and none of the boys wear shorts. The "other-town" boys have a full school uniform-green blazer with badge, gray long pants, and I can't remember specifics about the shirt and tie (so it's probably not very unique!)






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Created: October 8, 2000
Last updated: 4:11 AM 12/10/2008