Dawn Over France: Robin Hood in the French Countryside

Is this for you?

If you like old-school black and white adventures where the hero is just a guy with a sword and a decent attitude, you will probably have a good time here. If you need your movies to be super tight or need high-stakes modern editing, you are going to be bored to tears within twenty minutes.

Honestly, it’s refreshing to watch something that isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. It just wants to tell a story about a guy who fights the system. It’s got that specific, slightly grainy charm that makes you want to sit in a dark room with a cup of tea.

Notes from the screen

Raimu is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. You can tell he is the person everyone is watching, even when he isn't the one talking. There is this one scene where he just stands by a stone wall, looking at the horizon, and it feels like the whole movie pauses just to let him exist.

The pacing is… well, it is what it is. Sometimes it moves at the speed of a carriage, other times it just stops to look at a tree. I didn’t mind it, but I imagine some people would be checking their watches.

It reminded me a bit of the energy in Fanfan-la-Tulipe, though maybe a little less focused on the big spectacle and more on the local feel. It is not quite as sharp as the best stuff from that era, but it has heart. It feels human, which is more than I can say for most things on Netflix these days.

• The costumes look like they actually survived a day in the mud.
• The dialogue is snappy, but it gets lost in the background noise once or twice.
• The final act feels like it was edited in a hurry. Maybe they ran out of film? Who knows.
• I really liked the way the light hits the village squares. Very cozy.

There is a scene near the middle where the tension is supposed to be high, but the extra in the back is just sort of picking his nose. I couldn't stop looking at it. It’s those little moments of imperfection that keep me coming back to these old films.

Is it a masterpiece? No. Is it worth your Saturday afternoon? Probably. Sometimes you just need to watch a guy pull one over on the tax collector and call it a day. 🥖