Le grand cirque (1949) User Reviews (2)

Bitter victory

[pete36 · 7/10 · 20 September 2020]

Story of a number of Free French pilots during WW2 fighting in the RAF by mainly flying Spitfires.

Based on the memoirs of Pierre Glostermann, the highest scoring French ace of the 2nd WW, this is a rather bitter account of his time in the RAF. Made so close after the war you'd be expecting some flagwaving French movie with the Marseillaise constantly in the background. There is a bit of that but as the movie progresses it gets more and more depressing. This mainly is due to the fact that about everyone of Pierre's comrades start to die until he is about the only one left of the original bunch. Even the romance with some English girl goes wrong.

All in all not a bad movie even if there is quite a lot of stock footage used for the dogfighting but the surroundings and the Spitfires are quite real. Glostermann himself moved in 1944 to a squadron of Hawker Typhoons as a wingcommander but we do not get to see any of these.

I highly recommend the book as it is indeed a very laconic account of aerial warfare during WW2 and there is hardly any flagwaving about(and respect for the German pilots).

I think this would turn into a great remake as a movie or tv-series for the French especially now with all this CGI available.

The Hun is always in the sun

[dbdumonteil · 29 March 2015]

This is written on a map hanging on a wall during a ;the Hun (in French :Le Boche ) is the pejorative name of the German.

There have been harsh words about the planes used during the shooting,past masters noticing numerous technical and historical mistakes.See Wikipedia for details.

Others complained about the cast :only one English actress (and no English actors)for a movie which almost entirely takes place in England.Nevertheless,English is largely spoken ,and there are no subtitles:it is not a problem:as the movie,based on Clostermann's story ,is close to documentary ,it's all the more useless since most of French fighter pilots (of the Free French Forces)seem to understand Shakespeare's language quite well,which may seem implausible in WW2.

The only song which is heard is the Canadian folk song (very popular in France too) "Gentille Alouette" ,sung by a choir of soldiers .But no English (or American) song of those years.

Now,let's accentuate the positive: Pierre Cressoy is a good smiling lead;too bad he got lost in mediocre sword and sandals mediocrities afterward .

We do feel the pilots' camaraderie ,their grief when one of them does not come back.

The two scenes located in France are endearing,and for a good reason:Pierre Larquey gives good support as the priest who hides the pilot in a hearse.

The final scene when the pilot remembers all the buddies he lost in the war,as he says Farewell to the planes ,a scene maybe influenced by that of William Wyler's masterpiece "the best years of our lives "