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A King Without Distraction
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Wikipedia article
'A King Without Distraction' is a 1963 French mystery film directed by Franois Leterrier, starring Claude Giraud and Colette Renard. The story is set in the winter of 1843 and follows a police captain who investigates the disappearance of several little girls from a village.
The film is based on the novel 'Un roi sans divertissement' by Jean Giono. The title quotes Blaise Pascal, "Qu'on laisse un roi tout seul sans aucune satisfaction des sens, sans aucun soin de l'esprit, sans compagnies et sans divertissements, penser lui tout loisir, et l'on verra qu'un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misres." (Penses, 1670, posth.).
It was shot in the village Les Hermaux, on the Aubrac plateau in Aveyron. It was Claude Giraud's first leading role in a film. It was released in France on 30 August 1963.
Cast
* Claude Giraud as Captain Langlois
* Colette Renard as Clara
* Charles Vanel as the prosecutor
* Albert Rmy as the mayor
* Ren Blancard as the priest
* Pierre Repp as Ravanel
Summary
https://www.impetueux.com/un-roi-sans-divertissement/
Theme
Leterriers film juxtaposes the realms the murderer and the non-murderer, demonstrating that the boundary between the two is fragile. Un roi sans divertissement confronts the movie audience with their own homicidal potential.Gow, 1968 p. 66: Gow offers quotes from actor Rod Steiger on the furtive desire to murder. Gow also quotes from Martha Wolfenstein regarding the destructive potentialities present in every human being...
In this small masterpiece of benighted romanticism, an upright young captain of the gendarmerie, Langlois (Claude Girard) is tasked with accounting for the disappearance of a number of little girls in a remote snowbound village.Gow, 1968 p. 66
Despite his high rectitude, the Captain discovers himself susceptible to the same impulses that motivate the sociopath he seeks to discover.Gow, 1968 p. 66-67: A village elder and former public prosecutor (Charles Vanel), counsels the officer that the perpetrator responsible for the disappearances is likely a model citizen of the community, and whose base instincts are not easily discernible. Thematically, this is a key transitional point in the film: appearances can lie, and the seeds of depravity may be concealed by the young officers own handsome visage.Gow, 1968 p. 67-68
As Captain Langlois struggles to define the criminals motivation, he begins to display a cold indifference to death as he toys with the corpse of a small bird he has crushed with his hands. Although he refrains from an impulse to assault Clara, the inns proprietor and former prostitute (Colette Renard), the officers identity is rapidly disintegrating.Gow, 1968 p. 66-67: When Langlois simultaneously discovers the bodies of the murdered girls and spots the suspected killer retreating slowly through the frozen landscape, he pursues the suspect. The two men move in synchronicity as the murderer leads his pursuer to his home, which as predicted by the prosecutor is a conventional abode with wife and children. When confronted with his crime, the sociopath mildly affirms his guilt. The officer escorts the man outside and shoots him. Film historian offers this summation of the films denouement:
Footnotes
Sources
*Gow, Gordon. 1968. 'Suspense in the Cinema.' Castle Books, New York. The Tanvity Press and A. S. Barnes & Co. Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card No: 68-15196.
Category:Fiction set in 1840
Category:1963 films
Category:Films based on French novels
Category:Films based on works by Jean Giono
Category:Films directed by Franois Leterrier
Category:Films set in the 1840s
Category:1960s mystery drama films
Category:French mystery drama films
Category:1960s French-language films
Category:1963 drama films
Category:1960s French films
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