La Guerre des Gosses (partially found French drama film based on novel; 1936)

A poster of the film.

Status: Partially Found

La Guerre des Gosses (translated: The War of the Kids) is a 1936 French film and is the first adaptation of the 1912 novel War of the Buttons written by Louis Pergaud.^[1] The movie was broadcast for the first time in October 27, 1936 and it lasts 87 minutes.^[1] The film is best known for the participation of Charles Aznavour and Marcel Mouloudji.

Plot

Two small villages in the south of France have been torn apart by a feud waged for longer than anyone can remember. As a result, all the children in both towns are pitted against one another in a merciless battle. However, the teacher in one village and the mayor of the other are driven by totally different feelings.^[1]

Technical Sheet

Staff

Director: Jacques Daroy (assisted by Eugène Deslaw)
Screenwriter: Jacques Maury
Music: Wal-Berg
Photography: Charles Bauer
Editing: Jean Decan
Sound: Paul Duvergé
Production: Georges Legrand
Production Compagny: Forrester-Parant Productions

Cast

Jean Murat: Jean Delcourt
Claude May: Aline Sorbier
Saturnin Fabre: Simon
Raymond Rognoni: Lebrac's father
Serge Grave: Lebrac
Jacques Tavoli: Aztec
Marcel Mouloudji: la Crique
André Mouloudji: a child
Véra Pharès: Marie Tintin
Clairette Fournier: Tavie
Ginette Marbeauf: a child
Charles Aznavour: a child
Bouzauquet: Gaspard
Lucien Callamand: Gibus's father
Nicolas Amato: a peasant
Jean Buquet: a child
Élie Bareste: a child
Charles Galgani: a child
Gabriel Farguette
Clairette

Status

The film was considered lost because of the fact that only a single copy of this one still existed and was untraceable but in 2012 Paul Saddier was able to get his hands on it and aired it in the 17th Vence cinematographic meetings,^[2] some actors of the movie were invited like Elie Bareste and Charles Galgani. The national French channel "France 3" made a TV report about that news where they put some extracts of the film.

Apparently, after that Gaumont took the copy and put in it into their catalog, but never broadcast it again in anyway, however, they have added a screenshot of the film in their website.

In 2017, inalco (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales) has aired the movie in their auditorium on Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. the session was introduced by Lubomir Hosejko and they shared with that news a new screenshot of the film.^[3]

In 2020 an eBay user named lahire71 put up a press kit of the film for sale.