There is, of course, as someone once said, nothing new under the sun and the cynic in me wonders if Janet Lewis, who wrote (in 1982) the novel on which this film is based, was familiar with a British film directed in 1946 by Basil Dearden entitled 'The Captive Heart'. In that film a Czech soldier, Karel Hasek (Micheael Redgrave) assumes the identity of a dead British soldier, Geoffrey Mitchell, in order to survive and when he is sent to a P.O.W. camp he is obliged to correspond with the dead man's wife, Celia (Rachel Kempson) in order to maintain the pretence and gradually via this correspondence they fall in love but when, at the end of the war, Hasek meets Mitchell there is no question of his pretending to be her dead husband. Daniel Vigne has taken the novel by Lewis and adapted it for the screen. By setting it a few centuries in the past both writer and director distance it from The Captive Heart and do so further by depicting the real Martin Guerre in situ with wife Bertande (Nathalie Baye) then, after establishing his indifference to Bertrande he is allowed to abandon her. Years pass and Martin returns in the shape of Gerard Depardieu who is able to assuage doubts about his identity via his wide knowledge of both Bertande and the neighbors. There's not a great deal of suspense, it's fairly obvious that Depardieu is NOT the Martin Guerre who left the village but Vigne is more concerned with illustrating that Good can come out of Bad; living with Depardieu Baye is much more happy than when living with the real Martin and the faux Martin also proves a much better neighbor so it's just a question of waiting for the bubble to burst and wonder if hope will triumph over knowledge (no such luck) and the lovers will be allowed to live happily ever after. Both Depardieu and Baye turn in first class jobs and the period setting is well photographed. If not exactly a 'must-see' it is well worth seeing.
Review of The Return of Martin Guerre
