Tonight on TV: Romy Schneider’s Most Heartbreaking Role


Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: the film that won the first César in the history of French cinema.

After getting noticed with Les Grandes gueules and Boulevard du rhum, director Robert Enrico definitely made his mark in the eyes of the general public in 1976 with Le vieux fusil, winner of the very first César for Best Film.

Inspired by the massacre of Oradour-sur-Glane on June 10, 1944, during which members of the 1st battalion of the Der Führe regiment murdered 642 civilians and set fire to the village, the film interweaves scenes of relentless violence in flashback sequences, tender and delicate, on the happy moments of the couple formed by Philippe Noiret and Romy Schneider.

The performance of the latter, and the terrible fate reserved for her character, deeply upset the French public. Some will see in this performance a desire of the actress to exorcise a heavy family secret (her mother Magda Schneider being suspected of having had a relationship with Goebbels, minister of Nazi propaganda). Others will find proof, once again, that she gave herself body and soul to her characters.

After The old gun and its 3 million spectators – which makes it Romy Schneider’s biggest commercial success – she will shoot four other films also having the Second World War as a setting: The Train, A woman at her window, Group portrait with a lady and finally, La Passante du Sans-Souci, his latest film. With an average viewer rating of 4.2 out of 5, The old gun (ex-aequo with Garde à vue) is the best rated work of his filmography by Internet users AlloCiné.

The old gun by Robert Enrico with Philippe Noiret, Romy Schneider, Jean Bouise…

From 10 years old

Tonight on C8 at 9:10 p.m.



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