Based on novelist Romain Gary's biography,this is the second version of the writer's youth .In her husband Jules Dassin's 1970 movie, Melina Mercouri hammed it up,but did convince as this character of a Jewish mom ,and it was the main asset of this earlier work.That director ,in his last part of his career,was succumbing to the vices of European cinema of the era: the slow motion sequences ,which were very trendy then are almost unbearable today.Romain was played by no less than three different actors.
The same goes for the remake :a boy ,a teenager and a young man (Niney,thus,only appears in the second half);.Charlotte Gainsbourg reprises La Mère-Couri 's role and compares favorably with her performance ,less histrionic,but always omnipresent -her arrival at the base is worth the price of admission-,ambitious ,demanding ,almost in love with her son (one never sees her have an affair with a single man ,though some of them (the painter, portrayed by the always reliable Darroussin)woo her .
Longer than the first version (101 min) ,this one (125 min) sometimes drags on and seems a little patchy and desultory but it's inherent in any biography ;sex scenes are more explicit (the initiation scene with the unexpected mom because of the coach incident is featured in both movies) .
War scenes are much more developed than in the first adaptation ;it sometimes verges on ridicule : the aviator ,suffering from typhoid,crosses the hospital stark naked .
Two small details : two soldiers were actually denied their promotion,Romain was not the only one ,but it 's less storylike on the paper,let alone on the screen.
The 250 letters mom supposedly wrote are pure fiction; when he was in Africa, a telegram was sent to Romain who knew his dear one was dead when he came back to France.
The prologue in Mexico ,a bit gaudy , is a bit derivative:how many biographies were filmed as flashbacks?
All in all, you should see this remake ,but mainly for miss Gainsbourg ,in one of her best parts.
NB: When the first version was released,Gary was still alive ;hence the necessity to treat his material more gingerly.
