Le cheval d'orgueil (1980)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Claude Chabrol

Writers:

Daniel Boulanger (writer)
Claude Chabrol (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

December 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In early twentieth-century Brittany, two peasants marry, have a son, and live in traditional Breton ways: three generations under one roof...

Plot Keywords:

Brittany | Peasant | Horse | Grandfather | Childhood

Cast

Jacques Dufilho	...	Alain, le grand-père
Bernadette Le Saché	...	Anne-Marie, la mère
François Cluzet	...	Pierre-Alain, le père
Paul Le Person	...	Gourgon, le facteur
Pierre Le Rumeur	...	Le conteur
Michel Robin	...	Le marquis
Ronan Hubert	...	Pierre-Jacques à 7 ans
Armel Hubert	...	Pierre-Jacques à 11 ans
Dominique Lavanant	...	Marie-Jeanne, la sage-femme
Michel Blanc	...	Corentin Calvez
Georges Wilson	...	Récitant / Narrator (voice)
Jean-Claude Bouillaud
Laurence Caubet
Jacques Chailleux	...	Jeannot les mille métiers
Odile Chapal
Michel Decoux
Bernard Dumaine	...	Le député Le Bail
Pierre-François Dumeniaud	...	Le cousin Jean
Jean-Marie Lancelot
Gwendal
Jean Le Mouël
Yves Morgan-Jones	...	L'homme au baluchon

Directed by
Claude Chabrol

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Daniel Boulanger		writer
Claude Chabrol		writer
Pierre-Jakez Helias		novel

Produced by
Georges de Beauregard	....	producer

Original Music by
Pierre Jansen

Cinematography by
Jean Rabier

Film Editing by
Monique Fardoulis

Production Design by
Hilton McConnico

Costume Design by
Magali Fustier-Dray

Production Management
Pierre Gauchet	....	production manager

Sound Department
René Levert	....	sound

Production Companies

• BELA
• TF1 Films Production

Distributors

• Nicole Jouve Interama (1985) (USA) (subtitled)

Also Known As:

The Horse of Pride
The Proud Ones (UK)
Das Traumpferd (West Germany) [de]
El caballo del orgullo (Spain) [es]

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Bigouden, Finistère, France

Company:

BELA

A thoroughly wonderful movie

This is a thoroughly wonderful movie made, unfortunately, for a steadily shrinking audience. Pier-Jakes Helias' Chevel d'orgueil is not a novel, but a memoire that recounts not just one child's life, but the entire culture in which he lived, inland Brittany (l'Argoat) primarily before World War I. The movie has no plot as such. It is a series of vignettes that illustrate, very well, different aspects of Breton inland life at the time. The dialogue is sometimes in Breton, sometimes in French, depending (largely but not always) on what language the characters would actually have spoken in a given situation.

The unfortunate thing about this very good movie is that it really doesn't explain the culture it presents, it just presents it. As a result, if you are not already familiar with the culture it presents, a lot of it will not mean very much to you. While I generally don't like voice-over commentary, this is one movie that, for most non-Breton viewers, would greatly benefit from one.

So, a wonderful movie. But, I concede, one that will not mean a lot to those not already immersed in inland Breton culture.