''Weekend at Dunkirk'' (french: Week-end à Zuydcoote) is a

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

war drama film directed by

Henri Verneuil Henri Verneuil (; born Ashot Malakian; 15 October 1920 – 11 January 2002) was a French-Armenian playwright and filmmaker, who made a successful career in France. He was nominated for Oscar and Palme d'Or awards, and won Locarno International ...

and starring

Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...

. It is based on the 1949

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

winning novel ''

Week-end at Zuydcoote ''Week-end at Zuydcoote'' (; published as ''Weekend at Dunkirk'' in the United States) is a 1949 novel by French author Robert Merle, published in the Collection Blanche by Éditions Gallimard. It won the 1949 Prix Goncourt, France's most prestig ...

'' (French: ''Week-end à Zuydcoote'') by

Robert Merle Robert Merle (; 28 August 1908 – 27 March 2004) was a French novelist. Early life Merle was born in 1908 in Tébessa, French Algeria. His father Félix, who was an interpreter "with a perfect knowledge of literary and spoken Arabic", was kille ...

Plot

Set during the

Battle of Dunkirk The Battle of Dunkirk (french: Bataille de Dunkerque, link=no) was fought around the French port of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) during the Second World War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany. As the Allies were losing the Battle of France on t ...

, the film follows Julien Maillat, a French Army sergeant who tries to join the British Army on the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

's boat flotilla to England. No matter how hard he tries to make it, he and his French squad-mates and colleagues are hard-pressed to get away as the fight is getting harder and the Germans closer and closer.

Selected cast

as Staff sergeant French Army Julien Maillat * Catherine Spaak as Jeanne * Jean-Pierre Marielle as a French military chaplain friend of Maillat * François Périer as Alexandre * Pierre Mondy as Dhéry * Pierre Vernier (actor), Pierre Vernier as undertaker * Paul Préboist as a soldier * Ronald Howard (British actor), Ronald Howard as captain Robinson * Eric Sinclair : le capitaine Clark * Donald O'Brien (actor), Donald O'Brien as the English sergeant controlling the lines on the beach * Kenneth Haigh : John Atkins * Marie Dubois : Hélène, the French wife of Atkins * Nigel Stock (actor), Nigel Stock as the English sergeant carrying rocking horse and burned during a German attack * Christian Barbier : Paul

Reception

The film was the ninth most popular movie at the French box office in 1964. According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $1,700,000 in rentals to break even and made $1,755,000, meaning it made a profit.

References

External links

*
''Weekend at Dunkirk''
at Le Film Guide * 1964 films 1960s French-language films 1960s war drama films Films directed by Henri Verneuil Films set in 1940 Films set in Dunkirk Dunkirk evacuation films Films set on beaches French war drama films French World War II films Western Front of World War II films Films based on French novels 1964 drama films 1960s French films Italian war drama films Italian World War II films {{war-drama-film-stub