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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1960s
    Movies - 1960s Movies - K 2 Mins Read

    King Of Hearts (1966)

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    One of the lesser luminaries of the French New Wave, Philippe de Broca scored a cult hit with this atmospheric black comedy set at the end of the First World War.

    kingofhearts5

    The retreating Germans have booby-trapped a small French country town for the advancing Allies which will blow up the entire area.

    All the inhabitants have evacuated – well, all except the occupants of the local lunatic asylum, who have proceeded to take over the town, bedecked in bizarre costumes fashioned from whatever they were able to acquire.

    Eglantine (Micheline Presle) has taken over the bordello; the Duke (Jean-Claude Brialy) and the Duchess (Françoise Christophe) are the nobility; Julien Guiomar dons ecclesiastic robes to preside over the cathedral, and Pierre Brasseur becomes the general controlling imaginary troops.

    Alan Bates is superb as clueless Private Charles Plumpick, the kilted Scottish ornithologist who is mistakenly volunteered as an ordinance expert by his blundering colonel (Adolfo Celi) and dispatched to locate the bomb the Germans have left behind, dismantle it and so prevent the destruction of the town.

    The satirical swipes at monarchy, patriotism and war are played down in favour of whimsical, if occasionally anarchic, comedy, as the asylum patient townsfolk urge the Scot to become their King.

    They muster a royal procession which includes a white camel (from the local zoo) and a lovely consort, Coquelicot (Geneviève Bujold), for their King.

    Meanwhile, back at their respective fronts, the British and the Germans are waiting for the town to blow up.

    Plumpick, trying to rouse the insane villagers from their fun and games to the fact they’re about to be blown up at any moment, delivers de Broca’s warning of imminent atomic doom to all of us.

    The French cast is exceptional, with Pierre Brasseur, Jean-Claude Brialy and Michel Serrault the stand-out performers.

    kingofhearts6

    Private Charles Plumpick
    Alan Bates
    General Geranium
    Pierre Brasseur
    The Duke aka Le Duc de Trèfle
    Jean-Claude Brialy
    Coquelicot
    Geneviève Bujold
    Col Alexander MacBibenbrook
    Adolfo Celi
    Madame Eva (Eglantine)
    Micheline Presle
    Duchess
    Françoise Christophe
    Bishop Daisy aka Monseigneur Marguerite
    Julien Guiomar
    Crazy barber
    Michel Serrault
    Lt Hamburger
    Marc Dudicourt
    Colonel Helmut von Krack
    Daniel Boulanger

    Director
    Philippe de Broca

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