The Two of Us

Claude Berri, best known for his lavish adaptations of Marcel Pagnol and Emile Zola in the 1980s and ‘90s (Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring, Germinal), made his feature debut in 1966 with this ostensibly slight but nevertheless profound semiautobiographical film about a Jewish boy sent to a rural farm during World War II to escape being rounded up by the Nazis. The young Claude has to pretend to be Catholic, because the old man he'll be living with is a virulent anti-Semite and supporter of the collaborationist government of Marshal Petain, under whom he once served. The great joy of the film lies in watching the loving relationship that develops between “Grandpa,” wonderfully played by bear-like Michel Simon, and mischievous Claude (Alain Cohen), who actually toys with the prejudices of the gruff elder to comic effect. It's never easy to juxtapose sweetness with the awful realities of bigotry and war, but Berri deftly manages here, and thanks to the chemistry between Simon and Cohen, their routines don't often descend into sappy sentimentality—a real danger with such material. DVD extras on this characteristically luminous Criterion Collection release include Berri's Oscar-winning short “Le Poulet” (1962), a delightful piece about a boy tricking his parents into not roasting a rooster for dinner, as well as two interviews with Berri (one archival, the other new), an excerpt from an archival interview with Simon, a recent interview with Cohen, a segment from a 1960s TV program featuring Berri and the woman who actually sheltered him during the war, and a booklet with essays. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)