A Monkey in Winter (1962)

Simply Perfect

Pretty Good

Boring

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Its lead virtue is to be more than a good comedy. a film about life. and its choices. about two men, in Tigreville. and about the result of that meeting who could change everything. a film about decisions, past strangers and...Spain. nothing new, but all useful in deep sense. because it is a simple film. about simple people. and about the fundamental meanings of existence. and sure, a fine motif for see it remains the presence of Gabin and Belmondo and their almost total seductive performances.

French films often focus on things that are really quite different from the English/American scene. They're a lot about dialog, attitude, and big(mouthed) iconic protagonists - often less about an obvious moral at the end. This film is neither really a comedy nor a drama, it's like that perfect nuance between the two and borrows from both in a very typically French kind of cynical/blasé way.Instead of a great big moral as most films around the world usually have which they culminate towards, this one has rather a theme that is omnipresent throughout the developments. It's more like an ongoing element of both lead characters' conscience, or rather subconscious - as the synopsis states: the desire to travel. That irresistible urge to discover or rather rediscover a place exotic, festive and foreign; foreign to the boring old daily, routine life.As referenced in the first line of this review, French films are best when the dialog is best and this one has the right quality for the ambitions of the story and Gabin and Belmondo both do a very good job, Gabin especially as he seems to have been that very character at some point in his life, understands him so well. Such lines as (speaking to his wife, -paraphrasing): "Suzanne tu n'as que des qualités, mais tu m'emmerdes !" - so French in spirit, and a sentence so heavy with significance as it pertains to the sheltered, redundant gentrified "real" life.Interesting, well acted out, very good dialog, very well paced and filled up: 7.5/10. My own criticism: perhaps the "dream life" is hinted at too much where the film settles for carrying out the events in the plot while not further exploring that strong element of abstract emotion that remains merely underlying and implied.

Albert Quentin (Gabin) is running a small hotel in a coastal town in Normandy. He and his wife (Suzanne Flon)have settled down to a dull, peaceful existence heading into old age, when Fouquet (Belmondo), a young man gifted in flamenco dancing and getting very drunk, erupts into their lives. Soon all is turned upside-down, the teetotalling Quentin starts drinking again, and the town is treated to the most spectacular impromptu fireworks display that I can recall seeing in a movie. And that's not all... The acting is good all round: Gabin and Belmondo play off each other very well, Suzanne Flon strikes the right wistful and optimistic notes, and Noel Roquevert is very funny as the owner of a boutique where you can buy just about anything, including fireworks. Gabrielle Dorziat (of Les Parents terribles) has a nice cameo as the director of a girl's school who insists on speaking English.Henri Verneuil was a very popular director from the 50's to the 70's; without being a real auteur he had a talent for pleasing the audience. Un singe en hiver follows Mélodie en sous-sol with its fine Gabin-Delon pairing, and gave me a lot of pleasure.

The good-looking Belmondo is a wonder in this fresh and lively movie:inventiveness, intoxication,agility,fearlessness, heartiness,fervency.He and Gabin give the action an almost dreamily dimension,when they kick up a row.They put to rout their fellow citizens with fireworks.The unflinching Gabin makes a rotund role,he acts GOOD-HUMOUREDLY, finely,unerringly.His character is a madcap fantasy man,a hot-spur.Belmondo is unequaled in providing cinematographic pleasure.And "Un Singe ..." offers copious Belmondo mastership.A provincial innkeeper is thrilled to find a mate in the fond of the bottle stranger who puts up at his inn.The stranger (Belmondo!) is merry , refined, nimble,spontaneous, youthful, suave.The two have an allied in the shopkeeper Landru,a quaint, twisted man who sells old things together with obsolete histories.Un singe en Hiver is a funny,light fantasy.The humor is mild and gentle.The characters are entirely fictitious,unrealistic.The situation is purely fanciful (otherwise,the plot is conventional,the poetry is cheap,gooey and low,the "wisdom" is fake).It shows what is hardening , narrow, smothering, stifling, in the provincial way of life,and also suggests an alternative.The movie lives by the performances given by Gabin and Belmondo.Belmondo is in fine fettle,unimaginably good in his role as a dreamy drunk and as a gourmet.He is as mad as a March hare.Un singe en Hiver is not great cinema,not a 10/10 movie;but it is entertaining and mild,jovial and nicely done.And,above all,it offers one of the great, unhesitating, fragrant,fulfilled,graceful, unexampled,frolicsome, freely done Belmondo roles.Nonetheless,I think the movie is a little overrated by some."Un Singe ..." is one of the few important shows about dreaminess (though not on the same level as "Barfly" and "Days of Wine and Roses " ).It gets a fairy-like,ONEIRICAL thrill,suave,tender,delicate.My favorite Belmondo shows are Pierrot Le Fou (1965) ,À bout De soufflé ,L' Homme De Rio,La Sirène Du Mississipi.