Volker Schlondorff's eccentric WWII film, adapted from a 1970 novel of Michel Tournier's, about a French misfit who finds adventure, happiness, and a sense of purpose as an obliging prisoner of the Nazis. It makes an interesting companion not only to Schlondorff's The Tin Drum, but to Lacombe, Lucien and Au Revoir, les Enfants by Louis Malle, to whom the film is dedicated, and to whom Schlondorff once served as an assistant. Some striking imagery, particularly of animals, most particularly a morning encounter with a moose (but not particularly a horrific hunting scene). John Malkovich seems a little too small, though not too strange, for the lead role. Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gottfried John, Volker Spengler. (1996) — Duncan Shepherd
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