''A King Without Distraction'' () is a 1963 French mystery film directed by François Leterrier, starring Claude Giraud and Colette Renard. The story is set in the winter of 1843 and follows a police captain who investigates the disappearance of several little girls from a village. The film is based on the novel ''

Un roi sans divertissement ''Un roi sans divertissement'' (lit. "''a king without distraction''"), published in English as A King Alone, is a 1947 novel by the French writer Jean Giono. The narrative is set between 1843 and 1848 in the French Prealps and follows a police ...

'' by

Jean Giono Jean Giono (30 March 1895 – 8 October 1970) was a French writer who wrote works of fiction mostly set in the Provence region of France. First period Jean Giono was born to a family of modest means, his father a cobbler of Piedmontese descent a ...

. The title quotes

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal ( , , ; ; 19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earlies ...

, "Qu'on laisse un roi tout seul sans aucune satisfaction des sens, sans aucun soin de l'esprit, sans compagnies et sans divertissements, penser à lui tout à loisir, et l'on verra qu'un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères." (Pensées, 1670, posth.). It was shot in the village

Les Hermaux Les Hermaux (; oc, Los Ermals) is a commune in the Lozère department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrat ...

, on the Aubrac plateau in

Aveyron Aveyron (; oc, Avairon; ) is a department in the region of Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyronnais'' (masculine) or ''Aveyronnaises'' (feminine) in French. The inhabitants of ...

. It was Claude Giraud's first leading role in a film. It was released in France on 30 August 1963.

Cast

* Claude Giraud as Captain Langlois * Colette Renard as Clara *

Charles Vanel Charles-Marie Vanel (21 August 1892 – 15 April 1989) was a French actor and director. During his 76-year film career, which began in 1912, he appeared in more than 200 films and worked with many prominent directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, ...

as the prosecutor *

Albert Rémy Albert Rémy (9 April 1921 – 26 January 1967) was a French actor best known for his supporting roles in François Truffaut's first two feature films. He played Antoine Doinel's father in ''The 400 Blows'' and Charlie Koller's (Charles Aznavou ...

as the mayor *

René Blancard René Blancard (12 March 1897 – 5 November 1965) was a French film actor. He appeared in 80 films between 1922 and 1965. Selected filmography * ''The Mysteries of Paris'' (1922) - Bras-Rouge * ''Montmartre'' (1925) - Frédéric Charanço ...

as the priest * Pierre Repp as Ravanel

Summary

https://www.impetueux.com/un-roi-sans-divertissement/

Theme

Leterrier’s film juxtaposes the realms the murderer and the non-murderer, demonstrating that the boundary between the two is fragile. Un roi sans divertissement confronts the movie audience with their own homicidal potential. In this “small masterpiece of benighted romanticism”, an upright young captain of the gendarmerie, Langlois (Claude Girard) is tasked with accounting for the disappearance of a number of little girls in a remote snowbound village. Despite his high rectitude, the Captain discovers himself susceptible to the same impulses that motivate the sociopath he seeks to discover. A village elder and former public prosecutor (Charles Vanel), counsels the officer that the perpetrator responsible for the disappearances is likely a model citizen of the community, and whose “base instincts” are not easily discernible. Thematically, this is a key transitional point in the film: appearances can lie, and the seeds of depravity may be concealed by the young officers’ own handsome visage. As Captain Langlois struggles to define the criminal’s motivation, he begins to display a cold indifference to death as he toys with the corpse of a small bird he has crushed with his hands. Although he refrains from an impulse to assault Clara, the inn’s proprietor and former prostitute (Colette Renard), the officers identity is rapidly disintegrating.Gow, 1968 p. 66-67: When Langlois simultaneously discovers the bodies of the murdered girls and spots the suspected killer retreating slowly through the frozen landscape, he pursues the suspect. The two men move in synchronicity as the murderer leads his pursuer to his home, which as predicted by the prosecutor is a conventional abode with wife and children. When confronted with his crime, the sociopath mildly affirms his guilt. The officer escorts the man outside and shoots him. Film historian offers this summation of the film’s denouement:

Footnotes

Sources

*Gow, Gordon. 1968. ''Suspense in the Cinema.'' Castle Books, New York. The Tanvity Press and A. S. Barnes & Co. Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card No: 68-15196. Fiction set in 1840 1963 films Films based on French novels Films based on works by Jean Giono Films directed by François Leterrier Films set in the 1840s 1960s mystery drama films French mystery drama films 1960s French-language films 1963 drama films 1960s French films {{1960s-France-film-stub