Before Winter Comes (1968) User Reviews (11)

"....he just wanted to live..." .... "...don't we all...?..."

[Brucey_D · 7/10 · 26 November 2018]

This isn't really a comedy, despite it's billing in TV guides and some boisterous parts in the first half of the film. It is really a drama that tries to tell a story about different characters trying to make the best of their circumstances, amidst the near-chaos of post-war eastern Europe.

The backdrop and the sub-text of the film is that this is the preamble before the 'winter' of the cold war sets in; an unhappy state of affairs that suits no-one.

There is a fine cast in this film and it is mostly well-made. The camerawork uses a fair amount of the (then novel) zoom lens which is a little distracting, but not as distracting as some hand-held camerawork; an early example of 'shaky camera' for effect. Yeah, we get the point after ten seconds, we don't have to made ill by watching this for several more minutes, do we...?

If asked to criticise the casting and the acting performances, I can't help but think that Niven plays it a bit too straight, and that say, (a younger) Alec Guinness might have done a better job of it. But I am quibbling really; this is a pretty good film, well worth watching.

Who joins the Army to fight?

[brogmiller · 5/10 · 4 May 2020]

Following the abysmal 'Eye of the Devil' J. Lee Thompson and David Niven have teamed up again for ths film set in a displacement camp. Faced with a veritable Tower of Babel the commanding officer Major Burnside is sorely in need of an interpreter but is sent someone who knows only Ancient Greek and Latin. Luckily he stumbles upon a prisoner who is multi-lingual. Burnside turns a blind eye to his probably being a deserter but then his Russian counterpart starts to ask questions....... Music can make or mar a film and the score by Ron Grainer is terminally irritating. The scenes between the Cockney and Russkie soldiers are decidedly naff. As for the principals Topol is okay as the interpreter but his appeal has always eluded me. Anna Karina's talent and beauty transcend a thankless role and Anthony Quayle is brilliant as a Brigadier who calls to mind Peter Ustinov's observation that 'the Army is the final repository of the fool'. The film really belongs to Niven. It is not at all unusual to see him in uniform but behind his character's military persona there is a resignation and world-weariness which is very touching. Decidedly one of his best post-Oscar performances. This film should have been better but is alas another of this directors near misses.

Niven and Topol in two different films

[Igenlode Wordsmith · 7/10 · 3 June 2007]

I found "Before Winter Comes" to be a slightly uneven film; reflecting perhaps over-literally the contrast between Janovic, the happy-go-lucky racketeer, and Major Burnside, the unwilling and harassed camp commander who cannot allow himself the trap of sentiment.

It didn't even occur to me that the film could be read as a comedy, and I was taken aback afterwards to find it billed as such in the TV guide. Most of the humour comes with fairly dark undertones, and from the start the script, with the luxury of hindsight, foreshadows the coming Cold War; in fact, the times when it falters are when it appears to be brushing over this dark strand for a too-easy volteface ending. It is to the film's credit -- and considerable benefit -- that it doesn't, in the end, adopt this 'Hollywood' line that rings so false with the tenor of the rest of events, but the suggestion seems out of place. Anyone expecting Topol in a chirpy comedy might feel distinctly short-changed.

What it actually reminded me of most were two WW1-set pictures, "Aces High" and "Dawn Patrol" (in which a young David Niven had actually featured thirty years earlier, alongside friend and co-star Errol Flynn). Both, at heart, deal with questions of duty versus idealism, class versus country, and the temptation to let personal considerations influence decisions. And both are based around the same issue that, it seems to me, lies at the heart of this surprisingly nuanced film -- that of a naive youngster judging his seniors against abstract ideals, and running against harsh reality.

For by and large the film does go beyond simply-delineated depictions of Right and Wrong. Janovic's actions are frequently illicit, at best against the rules and at worst cynically self-serving (as when he encourages Maria to seduce young Pilkington on the grounds that he may prove useful), and yet we are clearly encouraged to sympathise with him as an anarchic free spirit. The Russians are depicted as petty-minded and belligerent, but both we and the characters are also reminded that they too are human. Maria, who has lost everything but the inn which is her livelihood, will give her body to any man who can help her to keep it; but she is shown as no cheerful slut but a damaged, war-torn survivor. "After a war," as she says bitterly in contemplating the young officer's innocence, "no-one is a virgin."

And Burnside, who is at the centre of the film, is perhaps the most complex character of all. He is initially presented almost as a caricature of the English army officer, proper, correct, intolerant and obsessed with duty and military order to the exclusion of all human frailties; and if this were a Hollywood movie, it would probably be the story of how this repressed Brit learns to Get in Touch with his Feelings and bend the rules. Instead, he is given considerable psychological depth, and is perhaps the nearest thing the film has to a flawed hero. He is not rich, not public-school-bred, and is living with the cost of an earlier error of judgement, but he is dedicated to his job without fear or favour, while honest enough to admit that mistakes can and will be made. The refugee camp must be cleared before winter comes and armed conflict with the Russians avoided, or far more than the lives of individuals will be at stake.

Both David Niven and a young John Hurt (as the fresh-faced Pilkington) are outstanding in this conflict of moralities, and the story provides no easy answers; but the jocular Topol doesn't always seem to be in the same film, with the result that I couldn't find his activities quite as sunnily endearing as I think they were supposed to be. I kept anticipating inevitable disaster.

The upshot is a picture that is neither quite one thing nor the other: neither a "Journey's End"-style study of conscience in war nor a romp of heart-warming roguery. It's as if the director hasn't entirely managed to balance his elements into a harmonious whole.

It also helps if the viewer has at least a smattering of both German and Russian at his disposal with which to appreciate the accuracy -- and otherwise -- of the translations taking place; although obviously we can't all boast as many languages as Janovic...

Before he was on the fiddle

[Oct · 31 May 2007]

Chaim Topol's career seems to have dwindled into endless revivals of his great role in 'Fiddler on the Roof' (cf Yul Brynner and 'The King and I'). So it's piquant to reconsider his first big break in Hollywood, two years before the film of 'Fiddler' catapulted him to fame.

'Before Winter Comes' highlights the decline of another once-rampant talent, director J. Lee Thompson. It is a mildly diverting entertainment, notable if only for its unusual setting: not World War two but its chaotic and tragic aftermath in four-power-divided Austria, with refugees in camps or roaming the snowy landscape looking for a home.

The centre of the story is an uneasy love/hate liaison. In the blue corner, bored, stiff, combat-nostalgic British senior officer David Niven ('I am nobody's old boy!'). In the red corner, a wily, Schweik-ish ex-Soviet displaced person whose polylinguality recommends him as a go-between when the UK occupying power is trying to co-exist with Stalin's boys as 'firm friends-- friends but firm'.

Niven could by now play a uniformed part asleep, and occasionally seems to have taken that as an order. His career was in low water at the time. It is a quieter part than in most of the ghastly comedies and capers he was doing at the time, but his bland technique is unaltered. Topol is fire to the Briton's ice: winking, grinning, suddenly looking sober and all-business, but how much is sincere and how much the pedlar's spiel? He's adequate, but Zorba-the-Greekishly unidimensional. Perhaps he always wanted to be liked a wee bit too much.

The film begins as lightish comedy, and tries for a change of pace to gravity and Cold War ominousness after Anna Karina insinuates a disturbing element as the love interest. But the gears clash. It looks like an Alistair McLean international adventure with more laughs, sprinkling doughty British thespians generously (Anthony Quayle as a brigadier, an amazingly unravaged John Hurt as a green junior officer) amid the Babel of displacement. Ron Grainer furnishes a whistling-squaddies theme to make you think of 'Bridge on the River Kwai', but the film lacks Lean's dedication to detail in the service of its message. Ultimately any theme deeper than 'Can't we all just get along?' is elusive. Nor is there any 'Great Escape' element to up the suspense.

The script was by Andrew Sinclair, a curious import to movies (Old Etonian, Cambridge academic, author of satirical novels) who sporadically tried to adapt his sour view of Britain to celluloid. The film looks too much 1969 rather than 1945, with Topol heavily hairy and a plethora of flashy zooms from Gilbert Taylor, Thompson's regular collaborator. They had been together, with Quayle, on 'Ice Cold in Alex'... which, alas, shows what a difference eleven years can make.

Before Winter Comes

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 3 June 2023]

David Niven stars in this rather unremarkable post-war comedy drama set in an Austrian camp that sorts out and repatriates displaced people. He leads the British contingent with Ori Levy ("Capt. Kamenev") his Russian counterpart with whom he has an uneasy sort of truce. Topol is their charismatic interpreter/peace broker "Janovic" who oils the wheels of their procedures - but he has a secret and when Niven and the Russian find out, he finds life becomes quite precarious. The comedy struggles, to be honest - Niven tries hard, but Topol too hard - neither seem to really want to be here. The presence of the naively optimistic young "Lieut. Pilkington" (John Hurt) and the cynical "Brig. Bewley" (Anthony Quayle) - who is aware of an incident in Niven's past, suggests that there is an underlying message in the film, but nothing really hits home. There are duty versus compassion clashes, and imperialist versus communist ones too - but the setting and characterisations don't support any real substance to these, and the films flails a bit before an ending that is surprisingly robust.

Topol Makes Himself Useful

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 2 December 2013]

After watching Before Winter Comes I'm still trying to figure out the points it was trying to make and where was the humor. Such laughs it had are the grimly ironical kind. As a vehicle for Topol it was quite good for that.

David Niven was playing it serious for once. He plays a British army major who for trying a grandstand play during battle got a whole lot of soldiers killed. Now that World War II is over he's in charge of a displaced refugee camp. Under the strict guidelines set by Yalta he has some rigid instructions as to where to send refugees. No one wants to go to the Russian zone, but that's not his call.

As for Topol when the call goes out for camp interpreter Topol is ready to make himself useful. In fact he's almost too good to be true. Probably he is.

In this film that seems rather pointless Topol is the whole show. A bit of his Tevye from Fiddler On The Roof is here, but his character is more like something Danny Kaye might have done. The script doesn't help Topol, he has to mine some barren land for some laughs.

Niven is not his usual charming self trying to carry a film on that. His character doesn't permit charm. He's in a situation he hates and wants to go back to 'fighting' regiment. But that says Brigadier Anthony Quayle ain't about to happen.

As a vehicle for Topol he proves he can play something other than Tevye, like Yul Brynner being someone other than the King of Siam. But the film really sinks into a bog of pretension in the final analysis.

Saw this film when it came out.

[lfman2002 · 1/10 · 23 June 2012]

When the film was released, Columbia booked it as a 2nd feature. Personally, after trying to sit through it, the studio probably should have shelved it, not necessarily for content, but because that use of flashy zooms became so difficult to sit through that I headed for the lobby more than four times.

In this instance zoom meant zooming in - cut - zoom out - zoom in-cut-zoom out all the way through the film.

The use of zoom lenses in motion pictures was a new tool for filmmakers at the time, but its application here made the film impossible to sit through, at least in a theatre. Until now, thought it had all but disappeared forever.

Not sure if time has changed any of this.

Fraternization. A concept that was to reduce during the Cold War that followed.

[tonypeacock-1 · 5/10 · 7 September 2023]

This film is set in post WWII occupied Austria that is split into zones run by the French, British, American and Russians respectively. Millions of people are displaced and refugee camps are formed in places like Austria to distribute refugees to places in this film like Linz and the West or Freistadt and eventually Russia.

It has elements of light comedy as the by the book British Major Burnside (David Niven) forbids 'fraternization' as he calls it but everybody seems to end up naked and frolicking in bed. Was I watching a Carry On film! Several border disputes with the Russians also provide more comic scenes including a border line that separates an alm establishment! The plight of the refugees has a more serious tone to proceedings.

Chaim Topol plays a character called Janovic, one such refugee but with a special 'talent' of interpreting several languages that proves useful to Burnside in dealing with the Russians in border disputes and such like. Topol steals the film for me with his comic touch and serious acting in other scenes.

Eventually it is revealed that Janovic is a deserter from the Russian army and to avoid a dispute with the allied (at the time) Russians is ordered to be returned to them, and probable death. Hardly comedic and that's one of the serious strands and very tragic ones.

Another serious strand is the story of Major Burnside during the War and the reason he has been placed at such outposts as this and later it transpires Indonesia.

A solid cast featuring the likes of David Niven, Topol, a young John Hurt, Anthony Quayle. Not a bad list and the film probably deserves greater recognition.

Post WW2 glimpse of life in Austrian camp

[lora64 · 9/10 · 8 February 2002]

This starts out as a rather tongue-in-cheek rendering of life in a camp for displaced persons after the war in 1945 somewhere near the Austrian border. There are many humorous incidents but eventually the film's message does get serious later on.

I'm amazed at the abundance of illustrious actors making up the cast -- David Niven as Major Burnside; Topol as the effusive interpreter; John Hurt playing the youthful but intense Lieutenant Pilkington; and Anthony Quayle as Brigadier Bewley.

There are moments of deep friction in the camp between British and Russian troops on various zoning matters including the fate of the interpreter who happens to be Russian.

Although there is a fair amount of drama and mature content throughout, I have the impression that this film has been an easy interlude for all these great, serious actors. Anna Karina as Maria the local girl is a lovely addition to the cast.

The scenery is fabulous of course, being filmed on location in Austria. It is somewhat of an offbeat script, however it does hold one's attention through to the end. This movie is one I missed out on all these years so am glad to have had to opportunity to finally see it. For me such good actors can't help but create an absorbing drama.

A time people never knew about

[oliverdearlove · 8/10 · 30 August 2018]

I first saw this in 1970 as a teenager and have thought about it intermittently ever since then. Topol made it later on and so I remember him in this film rather than his other famous less meaty roles later on. He plays a Jewish fixer in a camp in Austria. There is friction with the Soviet forces which is protrayed well, but we are not told the allied powers have already agreed to send all the Displaced Persons back to their countries of origin pre 1939. There are humourous incidents however the ending is foreshadowed for those who are aware of history - the betrayal of Yalta. In the end the Russians DPs are going back to trial and then a life in the gulags. Churchill later described a great wall ( from Stettin in the Baltic down to .....) and this has resonances in 2018. Niven's characters job is to get the job done according to the agreements already in place and then get back to England. After this film, a neighbour commented - no one else knows that large numbers of Eastern Europeans were sent back against their will to their deaths in Russia, and I explained we had a large displaced population in our village and they talked about it alot. I agreed with him that it was a very odd subject for a comedy and a lot of it I didnt find funny at all. Perhaps I was mistaking comedy for farce, and that it was a comedy in the sense that Chekhov wrote

There is no peace after a war - a prelude to the cold war

[clanciai · 9/10 · 26 September 2020]

David Niven makes a very remarkable performance here as an unwilling soldier in charge of a refugee camp (in the times of 4 million displaced persons in Europe) in Austria, where he has to send many paperless refugees into the Russian zone, where they have nothing good to expect in the days of big brother Stalin. He has a sore past that aches, but as a major in charge he has to stick to his stiff uppper lip, no matter what difficult trials he has to go through again. Topol makes a brilliant performance as the multí-lingual interpreter with many tricks up his sleeve, born in a cart between Tiflis and Tashkent, and he makes the best of it and is thoroughly entertaining, until the bleak reality of no peace after a war sets in, This is really a tragedy of several deep bottoms, and although David Niven is already thoroughly disíllusioned and Topol already is acquainted with the worst and has learned the hard way to survive, John Hurt as the young greenhorn still has his disillusions ahead of him, and they will strike him hard. Fortunately there is Anna Karina for a well needed sort of comfort to all of them. The film is more serious than it seems, it tries to appear like a comedy, and there certainly are comic ingredients, but the comic gloss cannot hide or smooth over the cruelty of the reality. Although the dark side of the Stalin regime should have been universally known to the world already after the Stalin trials of 1936, the west was amazingly naïve about Stalin and the true nature of his "communist paradise", as Roosevelt allowed himself to be duped by him and Churchill actually believed in him - until the cold war was a blatant fact, some time after the peace of the second world war, which never really ended but only took on less obvious inhuman activities of darkness.