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!

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.

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")

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.