Uranus (1990)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Claude Berri

Writers:

Marcel Aymé (novel)
Claude Berri (writer)

Release Date:

October 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

After World War II, a small French village struggles to put the war behind as the controlling Communist Party tries to flush out Petain loyalists...

Plot Keywords:

Collaborator | One Word Title | WWII | France | Based On Novel

Awards:

8 nominations

Cast

Michel Blanc	...	René Gaigneux - un communiste de coeur
Gérard Depardieu	...	Léopold Lajeunesse, un cafetier boit-sans-soif
Jean-Pierre Marielle	...	Archambaud - un ingénieur
Philippe Noiret	...	Watrin - un instituteur humaniste
Gérard Desarthe	...	Maxime Loin - un collabo en fuite
Michel Galabru	...	Monglat - un profiteur qui s'est enrichi pendant l'Occupation
Danièle Lebrun	...	Mme Archambaud - la femme de l'ingénieur
Fabrice Luchini	...	Jourdan - un prof communiste borné
Daniel Prévost	...	Rochard - un employé SNCF communiste
Yves Afonso	...	Le brigadier
Myriam Boyer	...	Mme Gaigneux
Dominique Bluzet	...	Michel Monglat - le fils du profiteur
Florence Darel	...	Marie-Anne Archambaud - la fille de l'ingénieur
Ticky Holgado	...	Mégrin, l'avocat
Josiane Lévêque	...	Andréa Lajeunesse - la femme de Léopold

Runtime:

Argentina:100 min | USA:100 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-12 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Maringues, Puy-de-Dôme, France

Company:

DD Productions

Movie Connections:

Featured in Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma (1995)

France after the war

Claude Berri has given us some fine pictures in the past; this is one of his very best. Aymé's novel had been very cynical, Berri keeps the tone and adds some fiery acting by Depardieu as Leopold the doomed barkeeper to create a lovely film. Hiding a collaborator might have been the focal point of some other film, but here it's almost secondary to the vicious intrigue going on among Communists, Pétain fanciers and others who just want to survive. It's a delight to see Berri showing Rochard, the Communist stalwart who had denounced so many, reporting Leopold to the police as having given shelter to Maxime Loin, then Leopold hires Rochard to help him in the bar: very funny and very pointed satire.

The performances are all so good. Michel Galabru as the oily, vicious Monglat, the profiteer whom everyone fears but whom everyone curries favor with is superb. Fabrice Luchini as the doctrinaire Communist Jourdan has hollow cheeks and horrible button eyes; he looks like one of the demented saints in El Greco's paintings. Michel Blanc as Gaigneux, the more realistic Party member, is solid--he not only wants to navigate the swift currents of politics, but is looking for love from Archambaud's daughter.