Historian Georges Sadoul relates that the impression made by this memory of WWI was so powerful that one of the original combatants, seeing it on French TV in 1962,almost fifty years after the war, was disturbed enough to take his own life.
This film is included in "Eclipse Series 4: Raymond Bernard", released by Criterion.
One of the film's consistent critiques was of those who profited from the First World War in various ways. The most poignant critique of profiteering is during the final scene of the film when Gilbert is hallucinating before his death. At one point during his hallucinations he sees coins falling (representing money, prosperity, and profiteering for those who didn't fight) that change into laurel wreaths, which often were used as floral tributes for Christian funerals and symbolize death and resurrection. The purpose of this imagery is to symbolically contrast the way the war "earned" money for some while it "earned" death for the front-line soldiers. This imagery concludes the film with a strong anti-war message that was clear to viewers of the 1930s, many of whom would've fought in the war themselves.
Gilles Grangier, who worked on the film as an assistant, told in his biography, that there was a swindle about the hiring of extras for the wooden crosses scene. The production paid for two hundred and fifty extras but only were actually paid for the sequence. The difference of payroll disappeared.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
