King of Hearts (1966 film)
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King of Hearts (original French title: Le Roi de cœur) is a 1966 French comedy-drama film directed by Philippe de Broca and starring Alan Bates.
The film is set in a small town in France near the end of World War I. As the Imperial German Army retreats, they booby trap the whole town to explode. The locals flee and, left to their own devices, a gaggle of cheerful lunatics escape the asylum and take over the town — thoroughly confusing the lone Scottish soldier who has been dispatched to defuse the bomb.
Plot
Charles Plumpick (Bates) is a kilt-wearing French-born Scottish soldier of the Signal Corps, caring for war pigeons, who is sent by his commanding officer to disarm a bomb placed in the town square by the retreating Germans.
As the fighting comes closer to the town, its inhabitants—including those who run the insane asylum—abandon it. The asylum gates are left open, and the inmates leave the asylum and take on the roles of the townspeople. Plumpick has no reason to think they are not who they appear to be—other than the colorful and playful way in which they're living their lives, so at odds with the fearful and war-ravaged times. The lunatics crown Plumpick the King of Hearts with surreal pageantry as he frantically tries to find the bomb before it goes off.
Main cast
- Jacques Balutin
- Alan Bates
- Daniel Boulanger
- Pierre Brasseur
- Jean-Claude Brialy
- Geneviève Bujold
- Pier Paolo Capponi
- Adolfo Celi
- Françoise Christophe
- Daniel Prévost
- Madeleine Clervanne
- Marc Dudicourt
- Julien Guiomar
- Palau
- Micheline Presle
- Michel Serrault
See also
