Malevil

A small town in southern France. The mayor also owns a castle called Malevil. One day he is in the cellar drinking wine with several others: the pharmacist, the vet and his employees. While they are down there a great noise is heard and the air starts getting hotter. When they come up there is no town; everything has burned and all the buildings are destroyed. The source is Robert Merle's novel of the same name. Christian de Chalonge's film does not show the catastrophe; nobody ever finds out exactly what happened and the film does not tell the viewer either. The real subject is what comes after: the handful of people left in the cellar try to build a new order, and another group arriving from outside wants to impose its own. Michel Serrault, Jacques Dutronc and Jean-Louis Trintignant are in the cast. The tone is hopeless.