La guerre des boutons (2011)

Directed by: Yann Samuell | 105 minutes | family | Actors: Eric Elmosnino, Mathilde Seigner, Fred Testot, Alain Chabat, Vincent Bres, Salomé Lemire, Théo Bertrand, Tristan Vichard, Tom Terrail, Louis Lefèbvre, Victor Le Blond, Arthur Garnier, June Maître, Paloma Lebeaut, Théo Fernandez, Antonio Tavarez , Mateo Faye

Rarely screened: in just seven (!) days, no fewer than two film versions of Louis Pergaud’s age-old novel ‘La guerre des boutons’ appeared in French cinemas. When the rights were released a year earlier, both Marc de Pontavice (producer of, among others, ‘Gainsbourg: Vie Héroique’) and his compatriot and professional Thomas Langmann (who produced, among others, ‘The Artist’) jumped on it. Because the two men could not agree on a tactic not to get in each other’s way, a fierce battle began. Because whoever releases his film first naturally benefits from this. In the end, De Pontavice’s ‘La guerre des boutons’ (2011) won by just a week ahead of ‘La nouvelle guerre des boutons’ by ‘competitor’ Langmann…

Compared to the first film adaptation of Pergaud’s still very popular novel, that of Yves Robert from 1962, which became a cult classic, both contemporary film adaptations are rather docile. The neorealism from Robert’s film, in which poverty, alcoholism and child abuse were shown without hesitation, has made way for sweet nostalgia in ‘La guerre des boutons’. The stark colors were exchanged for warm, colorful photography by Julien Hirsch. The screenplay by Yann Samuell, who also directed the film, revolves around the dilemma that the protagonist of the story, the young Lebrac (great role by the promising Vincent Bres), struggles with. On the one hand he feels obliged to help his mother (Mathilde Seigner) now that his father is no longer there, on the other hand he wants to distance himself from the prevailing norms and values. And then there’s his teacher (Eric Elmosnino), who wants to encourage the talented boy to keep learning. Against the background of his personal dilemmas, Lebrac and his classmates fight a street war with children from the neighboring village. Pretty innocent by the way, because ‘La guerre des boutons’ is above all a film that you can watch with the whole family. This is also where the shoe pinches, because the story has been stripped of all sharp edges, so that the events do not stick.

The drama is just not strong enough, the humor is just not funny enough, although the arguing teachers Elmosnino and his Alain Chabat provide comic highlights. ‘La guerre des boutons’ (which by the way means ‘button war’, after the tradition of cutting the buttons off the opponent’s clothing when he is ‘captured’) exudes nostalgia as we also know it from Dutch youth films such as ‘ crumb’. The atmosphere of the southern French countryside of the mid-fifties is portrayed rather romantic, partly thanks to Hirsch’s warm photography. The contrast with Robert’s hyper-realism is great. It seems that Samuell didn’t want to offend anyone with his film; this is a feel-good film that sometimes goes a bit to the corny and sentimental side. Little original and far from unforgettable, but with enough entertainment value to entertain movie viewers of different generations for well over a hundred minutes.