Captain Conan

Synopsis

Captain Conan is a warrior in the full sense of the term: he not only fights in an exceptional way, but living in war makes him live intensely. The Balkans until September 1918 are one of the theaters of the trench warfare. The capture of Mount Sokol , one of the last great battles of the war, precipitated the surrender of Bulgaria and offered to the Eastern army , under the command of Franchet d’Esperey , a vast breach towards the Austro-Hungarian territory. Hungarian .

At the head of fifty heroic soldiers, mostly out of military jails, Conan ( Philippe Torreton ) battle in the manner of the Sioux and tremble the enemy sectors. With his ” frank body “, he goes to the knife: “We saw the whites of the eyes to the brother and we punctured him by fucking the green all the regiment …”

Conan despises the regular army and the active officers, those whom he calls “soldiers”, whereas he regards himself as a “warrior”. He has esteem only for Scève ( Bernard Le Coq ), noble having turned his back on his privileges to engage in the infantry, and of friendship than for Norbert ( Samuel Le Bihan ), young graduate in Letters , whose righteousness and morality he appreciates. The armistice is signed in France, but only the army of the East is not demobilized, since it has to face the Bolsheviks of Russia . She remains in a state of war. Barracks in Bucharest , in an allied country, the soldiers sow disorder leading to the looting and murder.

Norbert, appointed commissioner-rapporteur, faithful to his convictions, has the delicate task of arresting and condemning the guilty. Conan’s men are obviously the first suspects; despite the fury of Conan, who defends them against all odds, Norbert will do his duty. The two friends will oppose, separate, and also unexpectedly, when Conan goes to Sveve, who wants him shot, to defend a young soldier accused of desertion.

Technical sheet

Distribution

Distinctions

• Méliès Prize 1996
• 22nd ceremony of the Caesar :
  • Best director – Bertrand Tavernier (ex-tied with Patrice Leconte for Ridicule )
  • Best actor – Philippe Torreton
  • Best film – Bertrand Tavernier (director), Frédéric Bourboulon and Alain Sarde (producers)
  • Best Screenplay – Jean Cosmos and Bertrand Tavernier
  • Best decorations – Guy-Claude François
  • Best costumes – Agnès Evein and Jacqueline Moreau
  • Best sound – Michel Desrois and Gérard Lamps
  • Best male athlete – Samuel le Bihan / Philippe Torreton

Bibliography

1. On Roger Vercel:

• Captain Conan (Prix Goncourt 1934) is the central part of a Balkan trilogy of which the other two titles are Our Father Trajan (1930) and Lena (1936). These books have had many editions (notably in the Livre de Poche).

2. On the film:

• 14 -18 today , n ^o 1, February 1998
• 1998 Motion picture annual guide , Washington, Cinebooks Inc., 1998
• CABANES, Bruno, Captain Conan, off-the-law of the Balkans in History , n ^o 203, October 1996
• DOIN, Jean-Luc, Bertrand Tavernier , Paris, Ramsay, 1997
• FORESTIER, François, The crazy story of Captain Conan. Tavernier Goes to War in Le Nouvel Observateur , n ^o 1665, 3-9 October 1996
• FRODON, Jean-Michel, The great maneuvers of the melancholy Captain * Conan in Le Monde , Oct 17, 1996
• GRASSIN, Sophie, The war and nothing else in L’Express , Oct 17, 1996
• KAPLAN, Nelly (Captain Conan) An artist of ling in Literary Magazine , n ^o 348, November 1996
• LOISEAU, Jean-Claude, Captain Conan in Télérama , October 16, 1996
• MERIGEAU, Pascal, Captain Conan. The wildest of them all in Le Nouvel Observateur , n ^o 1667, 17-23 October 1996
• OFFENSTADT, Nicolas, The shots of the Great War and the collective memory (1914-1999) , Paris, Odile Jacob, 1999
• Positive n ^o 429, November 1996
• First, n ^o 236, November 1996
• SEGUIN, Louis, The fervor and ambition in Literary Fortnight , n ^o 703, 1-15 November 1996
• VANDEN BERGHE, Mark, Obliterro ergo sum. About Captain Conan , Brussels, 1997
• Id., For Captain Conan, against forgetting. Great War and cinema. “Machines to live” and “to kill” Roger Vercel to Bertrand Tavernier , Brussels, 2000
• WAINTROP, Edouard, The true barbarity of Captain Conan in Libération , September 27, 1997
• www.ecrannoir.fr/dossiers/14-18/index.html (file The War 14/18 at the cinema)

3. On the historical context of the plot:

• ANTIPA, G., The enemy occupation of Romania and its economic and social consequences , Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1929
• BASILESCO (BASILESCU), Nicolas, Romania in war and in peace , 2 volumes, Paris, Félix Alcan bookstore, 1919
• CARCOPINO, Jerome, Memories of the war in the East. 1915-1917 , Paris, Hachette, 1970
• Chronicle of political and economic events in the Danubian basin 1918-1936. Romania , Paris, International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation , 1938
• DOMERGUE, Gabriel, The war in the East to the Dardanelles and the Balkans , Paris, Academic Bookstore Perrin et Cie, 1916
• DUCASSE, André, Balkans 14-18 or the cauldron of the devil , Paris, Robert Laffont, 1964
• DURANDIN, Catherine, History of the Romanian nation , Brussels, Complex, 1994
• Id., History of Romanians , Paris, Fayard, 1995
• DUTTON, David, Britain, France and Salonika campaign in 1917: the alliance tested in World Wars and contemporary conflicts , n ^o 180, October 1995
• Id., The Politics of Diplomacy: Britain and France in the Balkans in the First World War , London New York, IB Tauris, 1998
• HAMARD Bruno, When victory was won in the Balkans: the assault of the army of the East ally from September to November 1918 in World Wars and contemporary conflicts , n ^o 184, October 1996
• HITCHINS, Keith, Rumania 1866-1947 , Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994
• IANCOVICI, D., The Peace of Bucharest (May 7, 1918), Paris, Payot & C °, 1918
• IANCU, Gh., CIPAIANU, G., The consolidation of the union of Transylvania and Romania (1918-1919). French Evidence , Bucharest, Editura Encyclopedica, 1990
• KIRITZESCO (KIRITZESCU), Constantin, Pedagogy of peace and post-war international problems in Romania , Geneva, International Bureau of Education, 1930
• Id., Romania in the World War 1916-1919 , Paris, Payot, 1934
• LARCHER, M., The Great War in the Balkans , Paris, Payot, 1929
• MIQUEL, Pierre, The hairy of Orient , Paris, Fayard, 1998
• PRAHOVAN, Albert, Romania in arms , Paris, H.Floury, 1915
• PREDA, Dumitru, ALEXANDRESCU, Vasile, PRODAN, Costica, Romania and its war for national unity. 1918-1919 Campaign , Bucharest, Encyclopaedic Publishing, 1995
• PREDA, Dumitru, MOGHIOR, Neculai, VELTER, Tiberiu, Berthelot and Romania , Bucharest, Éditions Univers Enciclopedic, 1997
• RADULESCU-ZONER, Serban, MARINESCU, Beatrice, Bucurestii an anii primului razboi world 1914-1918 , Bucuresti, Editura Albatros, 1993
• REAU, RG, The War Council Crimes, with a preface by Henri Guernut, Secretary General of the League of Human Rights , Paris, Éditions du Progrès civique, undated (circa 1925)
• REED, John, The War in the Balkans. Translated and prefaced by François Maspero, Paris, Seuil, 1996 ( 1 ^st edition: 1916)
• România în timpul primului razboi world. Marturii documentare , Bucuresti, Editura Militara, 1996
• ROSETTI, Radu R., Marturisi (1914-1919) , Bucuresti, Editura Modelism, 1997
• ROUSSANE-SAINT-RAMOND, Francine, The Army of the East in the Great War: a forgotten memory? in global and contemporary conflicts Wars , n ^o 192, December 1998
• SERBESCO (SERBESCU), Sebastian, Romania and the war , Paris, Librairie Armand Colin, 1918
• Ter MINASSIAN, Taline, French geographers and the delimitation of the Balkan borders at the Peace Conference in 1919 in Revue d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, volume 44/2, april-june 1997
• TISON, Frank, The Church of France and the Eastern Army in World Wars and contemporary conflicts , n ^o 187, July 1997