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starring: Claude Rich, Salomé Stévenin, Rose Thiéry, Samuel Labarthe, Gert Burkarddirected by: Philippe de Broca
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304381021
Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 6304381026
Label: First Run Features
Manufacturer: First Run Features
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: First Run Features
Release Date: October 22, 2002
Running Time: 93 minutes
Sales Rank: 51805
Studio: First Run Features
Theatrical Release Date: August 30, 1996
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
The Green House, directed by veteran French filmmaker Philippe de Broca, relates the familiar art-house tale of a grumpy old man who falls under the humanizing spell of a precocious little girl. Set during the last months of the German occupation of France, the action takes place in the protected confines of Paris's combined zoo and horticultural center, Le Jardin de Plantes, where the grump Fernand (Claude Rich) is the devoted director. He inherits Philippine (Salomée Stévenin), his granddaughter, when his good-for-nothing son is shot by the Germans for a curfew violation. Taking her into his walled-in domain, which opens before her like a magical kingdom full of cuddly animals and exotic vegetation, he creates a different world for her, free of the ugly realities of the occupation.
De Broca, who created one of the early favorites of the cult revival circuit, King of Hearts, in 1966, strains just as hard as Fernand to revive his old formula, pitting gentle whimsy against the horror of war. But if de Broca could pass off that notion as poetry 30 years ago, in this cynically rehashed form it seems like rank sentimentality. --Dave Kehr
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - needs letterboxing
Great movie but in the version I saw originally it was very hard to read the translation, especially in the early scenes that had a white, snowy background. All translated movies should be letterboxed with the translation a light color against the background of black. Not all of us are conversant in French. That's the only thing preventing me from giving it five stars--it's that delightful and unusual
Rating:  - A FANATASY COME TRUE
How does a crotchety old zoo director tell his grand-daughter that her father is dead? He doesn't. Instead he tells her this delightful story of her father being a heroic resistence fighter. Fill her with these fantasies when you know they are not true but you want to spare the child the evil of war.
The Green House takes us to the waning days of WWII in France where an old man delights in fantasies even though he knows they are lies to cover his son's as well as his inadequecies. ... Read More
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