Strayed (2003) User Reviews

Not Téchiné's greatest, but still Téchiné

[Mengedegna · 8/10 · 8 October 2003]

Even when he's not in top form, Téchiné makes movies that tell you more per frame than just about anyone around. In this case, he's using a screenplay that is just a little too glib, with a closing plot twist well beneath his league. But his handling of young actors is, as always, impeccable, and his ability to convey the confusion and uncertainty of life as it is lived, moment to moment, remains unsurpassed. The opening scenes of ordinary families fleeing Paris and being strafed on the open road by the Luftwaffe are masterful, haunting and, alas, still and always timely. And you get several of what you always come back to Téchiné for: unforgettable portraits of wholly unique and credible human beings.

The film has been poohpoohed in France and as a result may never make into a proper U.S. release. Compared to a lot of what does get hurled out into the art-house market here, "Les Egarés" is a towering masterpiece and, for all its manifest imperfections, needs to be seen by serious moviegoers everywhere.

Captivating characterizations

[Tony43 · 8/10 · 21 May 2004]

Andre Techini's "Strayed," or perhaps more accurately, "the lost" or "displaced" people, has a simple premise. A school teacher, whose husband was killed in the early days of the war, takes her two children and flees Paris in the face of the Nazi advance on the City of Lights. In the countryside, as they are stuck in a massive traffic jam made up of refugees, they are strafed by German fighters in a harrowing scene that reminds you a little of the bombardment of the advancing troops in "All Quiet on the Western Front."

They lose their car and all their possessions, but are rescued by a strange, resourceful teenager who becomes their guide, companion, but in some ways, their charge, as they try to hide out -- from the war itself.

This is the kind of film that most American audiences wouldn't like, because after that strafing run, not another shot is fired, not another blow struck. The story that plays out is about the main characters getting to know, tolerate and even grow found of one another, but then finding themselves faced with some uncomfortable choices.

Gregoire LaPrince-Ringuet is very good as the 13-year-old boy of the family who might have been elevated to the man of the house status, had not the mysterious teenager arrived on the scene. But rather than show resentment, he winds up doing everything possible to become the older boy's friend.

Gaspard Ulliel is quite effective as the older boy, a sort of domesticated wild child. But the film belongs to Emmanuelle Beart, who plays the mother.

Beart's character is fascinating. She has lost her husband, her home, everything she has except her two kids. She is on the road with them, dead broke, dead tired and close to despairing. But of course, she is a tower of strength, right, magnificently holding her family together in the face of personal disaster and global chaos.

Actually, no. Beart's character is depicted as a woman clearly out of her depth who can barely keep herself together in the face of the problems confronting her. She's like a ticking time bomb, ready to completely fall apart at any moment. The only thing that holds her together is her rigid, school teacher training that allows her to continue to run her fugitive family as if she is maintaining order in a classroom during an unplanned fire drill.

And it works. Beart comes off neither as the typical weak, frightened woman Hollywood movies presented so often in the 50s, nor the kick butt superwoman that we see so often in American films today. Beart is so frightened during the air attack that she pees in her pants. She is so in need of structure to take her mind off things that she starts cleaning the windows of the abandoned home they later hide in.

But she is also together enough to handle a couple of French soldiers who drift by, easily dealing with them when her self-appointed teenage protector is so unsettled by these two potential rapists he can't even stay in the house with them.

Beart underplays her role, which features spartan dialogue to begin with. But there is a lot going on for her and you see it all playing out in her eyes, and behind her eyes as well.

It is another great performance from this French star and the film would be worth seeing just to study her acting, even if she were not one of the screen's great beauties.

A Close Look at a French Family Caught in War

[lawprof · 8/10 · 21 May 2004]

"Strayed" is the second French movie released in the U.S. recently in which fleeing urban refugees seek to outrun the German Army when the so-called "Phony War" turned very real in the spring of 1940. Where "Bon Voyage" combines a serio-comic homicide and some high-strutting portrayals of sundry officials, a movie star, hangers-on and their sycophants, as well as a conventional anti-Nazi plot, "Strayed" is director Andre Techine's finely honed and narrowly focused look at a family trying to survive.

Odile (Emmanuele Beart) lost her husband in the early days of the war (he died a hero-a must for any French WWII film). She and her two children, Philippe (Gregoire Leprise-Ringuet), thirteen, and Cathy (Clemence Meyer), about eight, abandoned their Paris home as German forces surged towards the city. Their car was destroyed by a marauding enemy plane and they narrowly escaped death. Trekking into the woods they're accompanied by a mysterious young man, still a teen, Yvan (Gaspard Ulliel), a fellow who seems to have considerable wilderness skills and whose very short hair was not in fashion among young French men at the time. A clue about his past. Yvan is not forthcoming about his pedigree or his recent activities.

Yvan breaks into a lovely house abandoned by its owners, classical music performers. Before letting the family in he insures that they will be there for a while by several acts of sabotage.

The story unfolds with relationships developing across age and gender lines, not without problems. Philippe befriends Yvan who can be haughty and dismissive of the younger boy, causing the latter pain. Cathy is a genuine, normal for her age pest, the kind who both exasperates and amuses. And the beautiful Odile finds it hard to resist being attracted to their mysterious benefactor who knows how to bring "home" if not the bacon, then the bunny.

Unlike "Bon Voyage" there are no anti-Nazi polemical messages here. Technine provides the basic facts: loss of a husband and father, dislocation that, perhaps, was unnecessary (although Odile does remark that she wouldn't collaborate with the invaders), a dark, almost scary at times benefactor springing up from nowhere. Adapting to rapid change in a lush and verdant countryside still largely unmarked by combat is the key.

Scenes are shot with mostly close-ups so that the characters' faces relay feelings. Very good cinematography.

Technine is a good storyteller and Beart is quietly effective in the very familiar role of "What's a mother to do?" She hasn't resolved the loss of her husband - she still grieves - but she also can't repress her femininity and sexuality. Odile is very believable as are her kids.

An impressive French film.

8/10

In the chaos of war, a confusion of identities

[Chris Knipp · 20 July 2004]

It's a pity André Téchiné's brilliant little movie, Strayed (Les Égarés) comes to America not long after Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Bon Voyage, which treats the same event, the French wartime flight from Paris to the countryside, in a much more buoyant, charming manner. The contrast may make the much lower-keyed Strayed look a bit drab. But it's an intense, haunting film and pure Téchiné with its sexy, somewhat ambiguous relationships and intense encounters across generations.

The sad-eyed, lovely Émmanuelle Béart is Odile, a recent war widow with a 13-year-old son, Philippe (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet), and a seven-year-old daughter, Cathy (Clémence Meyer), on the road with all the others, in their own auto. Then suddenly when the convoy they're in is strafed by stukas and bodies are lying around and their car's a mess and they don't know what to do, a youth named Yvan (Gaspard Ulliel) appears out of nowhere, leads them into the woods to safety, and finds a big abandoned house for them to stay in.

Yvan is a wild, lean young man with a hard body and sheared-off hair, like the brother Benoît Magimel played in Téchiné's 1996 Les Voleurs. Odile and her children are Paris people; they're brave but inept in these circumstances, and Yvan has survival skills they lack. Camping in the recently abandoned house, these people live for a few days as an unconventional family. Yvan is big brother, younger brother, husband, elder son, outcast, wild boy, protector, or provider to the others, alternatively indifferent and willing to do anything to stay with Odile.

The wartime context has been clearly established and we know this can't last. There are curious paradoxes. The household is mad, disturbed, yet idyllic and peaceful. Yvan is wise beyond his years, yet ignorant and uncivilized. It emerges that he can't read. Philippe is a weak child and looks up to and tries vainly to bond with Yvan. But he's more civilized than Yvan, more mature in moral sensibility. It's clear that Yvan's sense of property is vague and so are his origins. He tells a strange story about a friend who has died, but his background remains mysterious.

Strayed is as sad and brutal and incomprehensible as the war itself, and as such has more in common with Michael Haneke's apocalyptic Time of the Wolf (also just released in the US) than with Rappeneau's operatic, comedic, but ultimately hard to care about Bon Voyage. In Strayed, you don't have time as a viewer to prepare for anything, just like the characters. Suddenly Odile's car was hit and people nearby were dead. Suddenly a young man pulled Odile and her children off into the woods. Suddenly, after the odd idyll in the nice house has gone on for a few days, with Yvan catching rabbits for the others to eat, two French soldiers from Sedan appear and spend the night at the house. Suddenly when their awkward and threatening visit ends Odile and Yvan make love out in the dirt, like savages. Suddenly the whole interlude is ended and Yvan and the little family are separated. Yvan is taken away, and Odile and her children are in a refugee camp, little more than prisoners. Their moment of luxury and experimentation is over. C'est la guerre, Téchiné style.

It's not contemplative: it's so vivid and immediate that, were it not for the crowd scenes and Forties clothes you'd question if it has any period flavor, but it's touching and alive and it leaves you a little bit devastated – if you've been paying attention – with just a hint of what it's like to be marked by war's abrupt gifts and deprivations. Strayed works on a smaller scale than Téchiné's best films, but you feel the Téchiné style in every scene. However modest, this is a compelling and accomplished piece of work.

"Strayed" maintains it's course

[rosscinema · 7/10 · 30 May 2004]

Leave it to the French to make a film with an older woman and younger man and have World War II as it's backdrop but there is some real depth to the characterizations that make this more interesting than it seems on paper. Story takes place in France in 1940 where we see a widow and her two children flee Paris to escape the Nazi's and they are part of an exodus that is trying to make it's way south. Odile (Emmanuelle Beart) is a former school teacher who along with her 13 year old son Philippe (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet) and 9 year old daughter Cathy (Clemence Meyer) are traveling in their car until it is destroyed by planes and they end up hiding in the forest where they meet 17 year old Yvan (Gaspard Ulliel). Yvan says that his parents are dead and even though Odile is suspicious of the young man they follow him through the French countryside.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

After traveling on foot they find an abandoned country home where they decide to stay until Odile can find a telephone but she doesn't know that Yvan has cut the telephone wires. Yvan hunts for rabbits and fishes and becomes the provider for his "New" family and slowly gains the trust of Odile. One night he blurts out that he loves her and wants to marry her but Odile knows this will never happen even though there is some definite sexual tension between them. Two soldiers show up one day and Yvan feels threatened and decides whether or not to kill them!

This film is directed by Andre Techine who has become a very respected and admired director in France and his past films also show his patience in telling stories and allowing relationships to grow. He is aided greatly with the cinematography of Agnes Godard who captures beautifully the French countryside and there are some terrific shots of Beart by the windows with the lush landscape in the background. But at the core of this film is another enchanting performance by Beart who can show both toughness and nobility but still be vulnerable. She's not just another French beauty who came from the modeling circuit but a solid actress who has been slowly building an impressive resume. The script is interesting and it's because of the way it writes it's characters and early on we can see that the character Yvan has some hidden layers to him and that what he tells us is clearly not the truth and as the film continues we see that he has a dark past that he is trying to hide from. This film quietly and patiently shows us two characters that are escaping from something horrible and seeking to restart their lives and once again Beart is terrific.

Above average, but not so special

[BeneCumb · 7/10 · 10 March 2015]

Plots dealing with human relations taking place in closed environments are not easy to show on screen - even if the background is challenging and characters have to develop. In spite of catchy and versatile beginning, the events later, especially mansion-related ones, seem protracted at times, although there is more dynamism than statics. The romantic link is not evolving sufficiently, and it's climax is somewhat peculiar.

Luckily, all major performances are good, including the children who provide realistic approaches, not difficult to achieve sometimes... But when the credits appeared, I had to admit that I had expected more, since it was a French film, and the French are usually vibrant and spirited, but the overall atmosphere was more like a Dutch or Scandinavian one. Or were the war-time Frenchmen all so depressed and torpid?

Lost when lost? Or lost when they're found?

[tigerfish50 · 7/10 · 10 April 2010]

Odile, a schoolteacher war widow flees Paris with her 13YO son and 6YO daughter as the German army advances upon the city, and on the way she coldly rejects a wounded soldier's desperate pleas for a lift. Later, when the column of refugees are strafed by German fighters and her car is destroyed, they are rescued by a strange crew-cut young man, Yvan. Recognizing his talent for survival, the helpless mother and children attach themselves to him. They all move into a large abandoned house that he discovers in the remote countryside, whereupon the illiterate Yvan scavenges for food by trapping rabbits and stealing chickens from distant farms. Odile lies to her children to protect them from the horrors of war, but continues to distrust Yvan for his suspiciously obscure origins. Techine seems to portray each member of this displaced family selfishly engrossed in their own need, perhaps intending them to represent the fragmented French nation itself. When Odile asserts herself as the matriarch of this family, grudging bonds of affection begin to form - but the balance is upset when the outside world finally intrudes on their pastoral idyll, and the characters contradict their earlier behavior in strangely inconsistent ways. The resourceful Yvan's mysterious background is eventually revealed, only for Techine to impose an especially counter-intuitive destiny upon him. "Les Egares" is beautifully shot and is never less than absorbing, but the characters' emotional detachment becomes an obstacle to intense involvement in their story.

Nice, simple but flat !

[chanrion_d · 6/10 · 8 September 2003]

A journey of a woman with her 2 children accompanied by a young mysterious wanderer who tried to flee the war, but the tragic will somewhat jostled against this bucolic experience.

An intimist French film that typically depicts the emotions and mixed and complex relations between the protagonists.

Pictures are nice, actors are moving but with a dull script and so little stake, the films fails to catch you completely. Though slow, the film is never boring, it is very pleasant to watch.

The film leaves you charmed and confused, you would love to like it, but it definitely lacks appeal..(6 out of 10)

A Different Kind of Love, A Different Time of War

[gradyharp · 10/10 · 23 May 2006]

STRAYED is yet another of those tender French films about survival and discovery under the duress of World War II. Based on the novel 'Les Egares' by Gilles Perrault and adapted for the screen by Gilles Taurand, STRAYED is an elegantly honest tale of a small family forced to evacuate Paris during the Nazi invasion and how that disruption in their lives ultimately enhances their view of the world.

Odile (Emmanuelle Beart) is an educated mother of two children, Cathy (Clemence Meyer) and Philippe (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet), who has been teaching school and raising the dignity of her family until the war disrupts everything. During a blitz Odile hurries Cathy and Philippe into her car and drives out of Paris to the South to escape the Nazis. Her car breaks down and is burned and in a moment of desperation a young illiterate lad, Yvan (Gaspard Ulliel) from a reformatory offers his help and assists Odile and her family in finding refuge in a deserted country estate. Odile is at first cold to Yvan, but as the children warm to him, and as Yvan captures food for their table, Odile softens, no longer looking at this illiterate young lad as someone beneath her, and begins to teach him how to write and read.

Yvan keeps his past a secret, maintaining a mystery about himself that makes him all the more appealing. In time Odile succumbs to her physical attraction to Yvan and this warmly extended 'family' enjoys the beauty of the French countryside and new home...until the war seems over. Gendarmes visit the house, arrest Yvan as being an escapee from a reformatory, and because Odile and her children are illegally living in another person's home, they are moved to a refugee camp.

The manner in which this story pummels to an end is tense and tender and as directed by Andre Techine, the lessons of living, loving and surviving war are fully explored.

Odile is probably one of the beautiful Beart's finest roles, matched in sensitivity only by Gaspard Ulliel's finely wrought Yvan. The cinematography is breathtaking and the musical score is supportive without disrupting the flow of the film. Highly recommended on every level! Grady Harp

Beautiful Drama of War

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 25 February 2006]

In 1940, while escaping from Paris with her two children, the widowed schoolteacher Odile (Emmanuelle Béart) has her car bombed by the German airplanes and is helped by the mysterious Yvan (Gaspard Ulliel). They move into the forest and the find a huge house, where they decide to lodge themselves. Although being only seventeen years old, Yvan arises the desire in Odile in times of war.

"Les Égarés" is a beautiful drama of war. The story is very simple, but easy to understand the situation of the ordinary French people when Paris was invaded by the Germans in World War II before the shameful agreement of the governments of these two countries. I love Emmanuelle Béart, one of the best French actresses ever, and her love scene is one of the most sensual and erotic I have ever seen. Amazing how the director André Téchiné was able to shoot so intense eroticism in the dark. I was hypnotized by the beauty of this great actress, but the story is really attractive, original and good. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Anjo da Guerra" ("Angel of War")

Ultimately a waste of time

[jeremy-liebster · 3/10 · 4 September 2006]

Before I discuss Strayed I should say that I am a big fan of French cinema and therefore don't agree with the sweeping generalisation that it is over-ponderous and self-important. Strayed however most certainly does conform to this stereotype. It all begins very promisingly with a family running into the woods to escape German bombs and encountering an almost savage seventeen year old youth. The children like him while the widowed mother (played by Beart) is a little more reticent. Unfortunately the film then peters out and the rest of it meanders along with no sense of tension or character development. It is as though the writer came up with what he thought was a good idea, and then after writing a few pages realised that in fact he still had writer's block. The sex with which the film culminates appears to have been added to give the film some spice, but there are simply no preliminaries (at least on the part of Beart's character) to make her sudden rampant desire in any way explicable. The acting is good as is the general mood set by the music and the scenery, but this does not excuse the fact that this film simply has nothing important or interesting to say.

Emmanuelle Béart can act!

[Red-125 · 10/10 · 5 October 2004]

Les Égarés, (2003) ["Strayed" in the U.S.] is directed by

André Téchiné. The film stars Emmanuelle Béart as Odile, a war widow who flees Paris to escape the Germans. Although not wealthy, the family is well-educated and respectable. They bring with them their middle-class skills and weaknesses. Most

important in the film, they transfer their civilized world outlook to a world that is no longer civilized. Odile and her family quickly encounter the harsh realities of refugee life during wartime. The movie is essentially a journal of the family's adaptation to their new and dangerous situation.

Although the film, as would be expected, has its moments of violence, the substance of the drama revolves around the interaction of four characters--Odile, her two children, and an almost feral teenage boy they meet along the way.

Emmanuelle Béart's fabled beauty has, in some ways, worked against her reputation as an actor. However, if you look beyond Béart's appearance, you'll see an experienced actor delivering a moving and nuanced performance.

I recommend this film highly; it's worth seeking out.

The "lost" ones in scenic war-torn France

[jotix100 · 6/10 · 10 June 2004]

As with anything coming from France these days, this movie proves the banality of the stories that are being filmed in that country. Haven't we seen all this before? Rene Clement did it much better in his classic "Forbidden Games", and Andre Techine is not up to it with this one, at all.

Evidently, the novel in which this film is based was changed. It is surprising since the author, Giles Perrault, is also credited with its adaptation. It appears that M. Techine has the kind of clout within the French film industry that anything he wants to do, being worth to be filmed, or not, gets the go ahead sign, even though it doesn't merit to be made.

Emmanuelle Beart appears in the film as a plain woman. There is no excuse for couture dresses for this gorgeous creature, who always delights us when her gorgeous body is shown in compromising positions. At heart, her Odile is a simple woman and mother. But when young Yvan appears in the picture we know that she will be the one to initiate him into the pleasures of sex.

This film doesn't show anything new: It is only a diversion, and a vehicle for Ms Beart to show us how beautiful she really is. Unfortunately we have to wait almost to the end to see her teaching Yvan (after all, she's supposed to be a school teacher from Paris in the story) a thing or two he didn't know.

Forbidden games under a black moon

[dbdumonteil · 4/10 · 15 June 2006]

André Téchiné was never part of my favourite French directors."Les égarés" will not make me change my mind.It's certainly a cinema de qualité with polished pictures,good directing.But his movies (and I've seen a lot of them;"Barocco" "les soeurs Bronté" "j'embrasse pas" the ending of which is particularly infuriating)do nothing for me.

"Les égarés" ,in its first sequences on the road ,recalls René Clément's masterpiece "Jeux Interdits" .Then the scenes in the country far from the war might have been influenced by Louis Malle's "Black Moon" which would have turned "realistic",Yvan replacing the twins. The relationship Yvan/Odile is predictable and provides the low point of the film.The one sequence which reaches something out of the ordinary is when the wunderkind starts singing an operatic aria ,in German,which is all the more disturbing.

Is It Realism or Metaphor?

[noralee · 30 May 2004]

"Strayed (Les Égarés)" can't quite decide if it's a grittily realistic World War II drama or one of those let's-set-up-a-plausibly-extreme-situation-and-see-how-humans-react games.

The believable set-up of a widow and two children amidst frightened refugees fleeing Paris in 1940 is reinforced with intercuts of black-and-white newsreel-type footage. The second act in an isolated farmhouse with a helpful teenage boy suspiciously strains credulity, but the acting, particularly by Emmanuelle Béart, convinces us to accept the exploration of humanity.

But the arrival of retreating soldiers just confuses the bifurcation as it overlays both genres such that we just don't understand the characters' motivations in the climax, whether as realism or metaphor.

As in writer/director André Téchiné's "Alice and Martin," there's a final coda that adds new information on a character to change your perceptions. The novel it is based on does not appear to be available in English to see what he changed from the source material.

It is also possible Téchiné is making points about French political history, of which I was only able to pick up a few of the references as I know little about Vichy France, such as the house they are squatting in belongs to a Jewish musician who clearly will not be returning and the son's example of cultured singing is a German lieder.

The cinematography by Agnès Godard is beautiful.

Gaspard Ulliel and Emmanuelle Beart are the soul of the movie!

[saadgkhan · 6/10 · 21 August 2010]

Les égarés - STRAYED (French) – CATCH IT ( B ) Les égarés is like a play in the theater where nothing much dramatic is happening. A very simple story told in a very simple way in the backdrops of World War1. The characterization was the movie was really intriguing that's what keeps you hook to the movie. Gaspard Ulliel is truly a Brilliant Actor. His sincere portrayal of the characters can be seen in every movie. Gaspard Ulliel gave an excellent honest performance as a reckless teen. Emmanuelle Beart as the mother of the kids was amazing, she was completely natural. Both the kids' Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet and Clemence Meyer acted really well. I wished that it had the happy ending and Gaspard & Emmanuelle lived happily ever after but sad it didn't happened. Overall a good attempt and Gaspard Ulliel and Emmanuelle Beart are the soul of the movie!

More to watch

[emreyav3 · 7/10 · 21 August 2004]

In general I like this movie, but for me it was an abrupt end. I was expecting more to see about Yvan and his relationship with Odile, Philippe and Cathy. The relations between them were a little bit superficial. I think it would be much better if the dialogues consisted of more emotions. For me, the most effective moment of the film was very first hugging of Yvan and Odile when they see each other after long hours of leave. It was so natural and humane. The second one was the Yvan and Philippe's pushing Cathy in a barrow and altogether having fun. The scenery of the movie is very colorful and it is enjoyable to watch despite the fact that it finishes so quickly in the end.

It's all about the relationship

[=G= · 7/10 · 4 January 2005]

"Strayed" is a film which examines the relationship which develops between a displaced war widow, Odile, who is fleeing Paris with her two children during WWII and an inscrutable 17 year old boy, Yvan, who seems too much at home in the forest where the woman finds herself stranded. As the four set up house-keeping in a secluded abandoned home and the film follows their day to day activities with the rumbling of war in the distance, it becomes increasingly apparent that there is something more than just desperation and the mutual need to survive drawing Odile and Yvan together. In typical French fashion, "Strayed" ignores the excitement and adventure to be found in war torn France to study the nuances of the unusual and unrelenting relationship between the two unlikely refugees making it a good watch for those into French people flicks. (B)

Straying from an originally interesting idea ...

[chrishend · 6/10 · 26 January 2007]

I'll start by agreeing with others here that the acting in the movie was very good, Emmanuelle in particular did a great job. The kids even did a good job although at times they were forced to use lines that kids would never say (um, 10ish year-old girl screaming about wanting to get impregnated? Okay ...) Unfortunately, the actors and the scenery were the best things about this movie.

While watching the film I simply did not understand why there was a sexual encounter between the mother and the teen boy. There was no buildup, there was no real interest between the characters, it just BAM happened. It came completely out of the blue (although bless you Ms. Beart. I'd loved to have been in that kid's shoes during that scene ...) This relationship that was built up somewhat in the trailer and the advertising made no sense whatsoever. The "love" story in this movie seemed like a complete "Hollywood" style cop-out where a little bit of skin or sex has to be included in any movie about "relationships" to make the mouth-breathing public happy.

After listening to some of the interviews on the DVD I was finally able to figure out where the director went horribly wrong. The author of the original book said that in his story the 2 soldiers tried to rape the mother until the teen boy comes out of the blue and saves her. After that she sleeps with him somewhat out of gratitude. That at least sounds plausible.

However, the explanation of why she slept with him in the movie ... that the she became lonely after hearing about the soldier talking about going back to his family ... I completely missed in the film. When they brought up this idea in the interviews it felt like I must've been watching a completely different movie.

This film introduced the soldiers as potentially dangerous characters, and throughout their scenes we were never led to cast our doubt aside. Therefore the idea of her being so moved by this soldier's story (a soldier that might be thinking of raping her) that her loneliness drives her to have sex with the teen boy (of which she seemingly had no real interest) is laughable. The audience was never led to believe much of anything that left the soldier's mouth, so why should we accept that the mother character would be so moved by it that it would drive her to very suddenly jump the bones of the teen boy? Without the soldiers attempting to rape her, as what occurred in the book, there was never any ultimate resolution between the two world-views of the main characters ... the survival of the fittest mentality of the boy (who was ready to attack the unarmed soldiers with an axe) vs. the living through society/morality viewpoint put forth by the mother. The movie just sort of ended ... If the boy had gone ahead to murder the soldiers there would've at least been some deeper question revealed about how people maybe need to make choices between life/death/killing/stealing/etc when they are forced into the middle of a situation where their lives are in danger. This conflict between world-views, that the movie was seemingly built toward, was completely abandoned and unresolved.

Answers to a few questions

[fvila · 9/10 · 7 November 2005]

Being French and somewhat interested in history, I think I can give my 2 bits on a few questions about this movie:

Why does the kid sing a song in German? My idea is that because friendship between France and Germany is now so sacro-saint, the director felt the need to remind viewers that all this was past history and we are now the best of friends. I think this was necessary because of the very graphic and terrifying scenes of refugees being bombed by German planes.

Historical movie or individual adventure? I think both. The story is one of individuals cut off from the rest of the world, but the atmosphere of chaos, of loss of values, of breakdown of civilization, of not knowing where to go or what to do, appears to be representative of the way the people who lived through the events felt about them. Gaspard Ulliel, who seems to appear out of nowhere, as if a product of the times, personifies very well this feeling of chaos. Some also lived that period as a holiday from their everyday lives - if they were unattached and could fend for themselves. Alphonse Boudard's autobiographical book "Les combattants du petit bonheur" captures that outlook.

The fact that they are cut off from the rest of the world makes the movie more present, like something that could be happening here and now. Most of the time you don't get the usual distraction of local color - costumes, old cars, etc- to show that this really is the past. Personally I get annoyed at movies that use sepia coloring, or historical allusions like famous news radio broadcasts so that you can't forget for a moment the distance between then and now.

Moreover I think this movie fits into a trend of recent studies of history. A lot of books or documentaries on historical events stress the importance of understanding individual experiences to get a glimpse of the big picture.

Self-compliant French cinema

[vostf · 4/10 · 19 August 2003]

June 1940. As the German army invades France whole families flee through the country. It may remind you of the setting for René Clément's Jeux interdits. It's quite the same save that you feel not much sympathy for the characters. The mother (Emmanuel Béart) and her children flee and meet Yvan (Gaspard Ulliel), 16, who settles sort of a male authority. But all of them are nothing but wanderers (Egarés).

So what's the hook? Well this is French cinema, that is the kind most film critics leniently praise precisely for wandering. You've got a storyline leading nowhere, characters discovering nothing so that nothing important happens. Ah but the pictures are nice and there's a little sex to thank you for waiting.

Then it's over and you wonder why you wandered into this theatre. Too late to wonder, you've already forgotten everything but you know why people go to see pop-corn movies: they forgot everything right away but they had the thrills.

A Story of Betrayal

[hmsgroop · 8/10 · 19 August 2013]

Much has already been said by other viewers about the relationship of the characters in the movie. Viewers have rightly noted that the characters live in a world of chaos when everything seems to be falling apart: the everyday comfortable world, the family ties, the rules and inhibitions. But such circumstances bring out in people what they really are. People set aside social convention and struggle for survival, need of love, protection, in a desperate search for something to hold on to in this world. They build a small fragile world of their own, which may seem pretty strange, but the only one working at the moment. They form the most sincere primeval bonds, and these bonds shatter one day when the outer world reminds the isolated group of survivors (noble savages) of itself. Yvan gets caught, and the truth about his past becomes known, and it suddenly matters. Odile and the children betray Yvan, failing to claim him as one of their own, flinching from his identity and background. I think that that is the ultimate reason for Yvan's suicide: he can't stand this abrupt end to the only spell of happy life he must have known, he can't survive this betrayal. And the betrayal backfires on Odile and the children: their life in the refugee camp also debases them, the outer filth of the camp and thelack of freedom they used to enjoy in that forgotten country house is the price they pay for their cowardice and indecision at the most crucial moment. One white lie, making it possible for Yvan to gain time, to escape, and everything could have been different. I think they slowly start to learn their lesson, but the price paid for this lesson is too high, and the bitterest thing is that it's not they who pay it.

the mislaid plans ...

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 17 October 2003]

As a fan of WW11-based French movies I caught this one in Paris last month. In their wisdom the selection committee for the London Film Festival have ignored the slightly superior 'Bon Voyage', released earlier this year and plumped for this one under the dubious anglicized title 'Strayed'. Les Egares translates literally as 'The Misled', which is only slightly less cumbersome, though more accurate, than 'Strayed' which is ambiguous to say the least. What we have is Emmanuelle Beart playing down her chocolate-box beauty and giving us the harassed mother with two kids ducking and diving in Occupied France to avoid strafing by Stukas. Street-wise Yvan latches on to the family and because his live-off-the-land knowhow is invaluable Odile (Beart) tolerates him. They find an abandoned château and decide to tough it out for the duration which allows the uneasy sexual attraction to simmer nicely. Beart, who suffered the tragic loss of her real-life partner earlier this year, acquits herself well but overall the movie is low on the totem-pole of recent movies set against this backdrop - already this year, in addition to 'Bon Voyage', we have had (in France, that is) Effroyables Jardins (Strange Gardens) with Jacques Villeret and Andre Dussolier turning in great performances albeit in a much lighter vein, last year's Monsieur Batignole is also a contender while the one they all have to beat is Tavernier's standout 'Laissez-Passer'. In sum: see it for Beart and the photography.

War brings together unlikely people who then grow through the experience.

[emeless · 22 May 2004]

A powerfully suspenseful film about how war tears lives apart, nearly destroys them, and then, amazingly, forces them to survive together. Set in gorgeous French countryside, beautifully acted and magically tense, the film is a strong reminder of man's beastial treatment of fellow humans. Redemption occurs while limited and lustful love develop. The point is in the mystery of people's behavior and its unpredictability. The lead actors, Beart and Ulliel are outstanding and memorable. As you might surmise from the opening scenes of wartime refugees in France, this is not a set up for a happy ending. But it is a profound story and a moving experience.

A family on the run during WW2, and a mysterious teenager helped each other getting through tough times.

[zionforsell · 8/10 · 24 June 2006]

I love this movie. As usual of a French movie, it contains a minimal amount of dialogs. The viewer needs to pay attention to their gesture of emotion, not simply hearing it from the dialog. Hollywood movies are too obvious when it tells everything and leave no spot for viewer to interpret. But if you love a movie that's artsy, it's for you! Gaspard Ulliel is brilliant. Bert is excellent too! She really carries on the story well. But Gaspard shines in the role of the upbeat, mysterious teenager. He still maintains that mystery about the character even to the end. THe movie sets in a wonderfully preserved place and sometimes I watch it just to see how beautiful nature is. Essentially, this movie is not about a war, but about human relationships being put into an intimate situation!