A Monkey in Winter

A film set on the northern coast of France. Albert runs a small hotel. Years ago he drank heavily; during the war he made a promise to his wife and has not touched a drop since. A town out of season, in winter. The hotel is empty, the sea is cold, there is nobody in the street. One day a guest arrives. Gabriel is young, in advertising, restless and drinking. His daughter is at the boarding school nearby; he has come to see her and does not know how to talk to her. The two begin to talk. From there the film is about two men holding on to each other. One has held himself in for years, the other cannot hold at all; both have a place they want to escape to and both places are imaginary: one talks about China, the other about Spain. Then Albert drinks. What the narrative is interested in is not alcohol but permission: for two days each becomes the person he wanted to be, and they turn the town upside down. The best-known passage is the night sequence: fireworks, Spain, an imitation bullfight and the beach toward morning. The source is a novel by Antoine Blondin; the dialogue was written by Michel Audiard and the lines were quoted in France for years. Jean Gabin plays Albert and Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Gabriel. One was the best-known older actor of the period, the other the face of the new generation; the two of them together is the real event of the film. Henri Verneuil directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes French classics and films that rest on two actors. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for incident; the narrative is almost entirely talk and it plainly makes drinking beautiful.