Despite his detestation of the New Wave (you got that one right, Jean)Gabin worked well with a new generation of actors, specifically Alain Delon and, as here, Jean-Paul Belmondo who was a genuine product of le nouvelle vague. This is a story of unlikely male friendship yet it is light years short of Il Postino in terms of intensity, it uses the unlikely bonding to generate laughs but L'Emmerdeur or virtually any of Francis Weber's other male bonding titles - Le Chevre, Les Comperes, Tais- Toi - leave it dead in the water. And yet it works, it weaves its spell, spins its web and we succumb gratefully. Of course Belmondo's sole representative of the nouvelle vague is hopelessly outnumbered not just by Gabin himself (even if by himself he is worth ALL the new waveleteers put together) but by the wonderful Suzanne Flon, Noel Roquevert and Gabriele Dorziat albeit in a cameo, all veterans of real French film making. All in all it's a joyous experience laced with a beguiling charm.

"A Monkey in Winter" is a 1962 French film based on a novel by Antoine Blondin. The most interesting thing about this film is the opening scenes during World War II and the German occupation of the town, Tigreville. It's actually Villerville, a Normandy vacation spot on the English Channel near L'Havre.

The scenic shots of the locale are impressive and interesting. But the aerial scenes of Allied bombers look very strange - as though they might have been cutouts or models filmed. They just don't look real. Obviously, though, the producers obtained some aerial combat film footage from the war that is interspersed here and there.

The plot of two sots in the first part, and then one sot with a returned sot in the second half, wasn't at all entertaining to me. Nor can I imagine why this would be of such interest or entertainment to anyone else. The aspect of Albert Quentin being a day-dreaming dipsomaniac is noted, but for what point or entertainment? This film hardly has anything comical for a supposed comedy-drama.

I know that Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo were two great French actors. They made some very good films in their day. And, they are okay with their roles here. But with a plot that is little more than a few days in the lives of a couple of people, with boozing shown as escapism, "A Monkey in Winter" is more of a downer than entertainment. This seemed much like the TV soap series that became popular during that time.

Apparently this was considered something special by French audiences of the day, and the village of Villerville actually has a historical marker from the making of this movie. The one very implausible scene is the huge fireworks display supposedly set off by just three men who carry a few boxes of fireworks from a store and set up and light a huge display on the beach. Another questionable scene is townspeople (it's the off-season so there aren't many visitors) cheering Belmondo's Gabriel Fouquet who stands in the middle of the main traffic square into town and acts as a bull-fighter with a cape to oncoming cars.

I can think of many places where people would think such a guy was nuts, but they surely wouldn't be cheering him on. I spent time in France in 1963 and 1964, but that sort of "humor" wasn't evident along the French Riviera. And, I have had French friends and several acquaintances. Could this be a regional type of humor - of those from Northern France (where Paris is located, of course)? One thinks of the period of the French Revolution when spectators cheered and applauded as people lost their heads in quite another literal way at the guillotine.

One of the townspeople in a cabaret tells Fouquet that "they call this place the California of Normandy." The best lines are a simple exchange between Gabin's Albert Quentin and his wife, Suzanne (played by Suzanne Flon). She says, "Weird hour to arrive, especially in this weather." And, Albert replies, "Travelers are made to travel. The weather doesn't count."

This just isn't much of a film that many might find entertaining.

A small coastal town in Normandy is the setting for this story. We are taken to the last days of WWII as Allied air forces begin bombing the town. Albert Quentin, a local hotel owner has been drinking heavily with a buddy at the brothel. It becomes clear they must abandon the building if they want to save their lives. Quentin makes a promise if he will be spared of a death: he will stop drinking.

Years go by and Quentin and his wife, Suzanne, are living and managing their hotel, Stella, located in the center of town. The city showed no signs of what the bombing it suffered. Gabriel Fouquet arrives one night and asks to be taken to a hotel. Most of the places are closed because of the winter season. The driver recommends him to go to the Stella. As Gabriel gets settled he wants to have a drink, but it is too late for that at the hotel.

Gabriel is a man with a secret. His own daughter is studying at a local boarding school run by nuns. Gabriel and he girl has been estranged by some unknown reason that is not well explained. Eventually, Gabriel and Albert connect in surprising ways. They see in one another good nature as well as a friendship that comes from mutual understanding.

Never having seen the film, we had a chance when it showed on a French channel. The film was directed by Henri Verneuil, an old timer in that country's cinema, closely associated with Jean Gabin, having worked with him in a number of pictures together. The screenplay is credited to Francois Bover and Michel Audiard, the father of director Jacques Audiard, in an adaptation of Antoine Blondin.

The pairing of Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo was a gamble for the creators of the film. They came from different styles of acting. Mr. Gabin was a superstar in his native country, having done excellent work throughout his career. Jean-Paul Belmondo, who was much younger, was a product of the recent New Wave, which Mr. Gabin detested because the chaotic style the new directors brought to the cinema. Evidently the stars show a rapport unimaginable, something that translated in a friendship off the camera as well.

Suzanne Flon, a character actress, plays Suzanne Quentin. Louis Page, the director of photography captured the atmosphere of the little town of Normandy, even taking us to the beaches that saw the Allied invasion of France by the Allied forces.