By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * )
In 1918, shellshocked from the First World War, Garris (Jacques Gamblin) stumbles through deepest France and is sheltered by a 92-year-old man (Jacques Duflho) who dies during the night, leaving his marshland cottage to Garris.
Fifteen years later, Garris still lives there, doing odd
jobs in the nearby town with his simple mate Riton (Jacques Villeret). Their friends include the genteel Amadee (Andre Dussollier) and M. Richard, an elderly businessman who remembers when he was a poor marsh-dweller, too.
Nothing exciting happens most of the time — except when Eric Cantona, the footballer-poet-actor, swaggers into town in a delightful cameo of himself, but it succeeds perfectly in what it sets out to do — evoke rural France between the wars, provide laughs and a little tragedy.
Running time: 115 mins
Rental: Today
