Figure 1.--Louis Pergaud's La guerre des boutons is about the boys ffro two neigboring villages who fight each other. Buttons are the trophies and hear they are cutting the buttons off a captured boy's clothes. Click on the image for another scene.
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Figure 1.--Louis Pergaud's La guerre des boutons is about the boys ffro two neigboring villages who fight each other. Buttons are the trophies and hear they are cutting the buttons off a captured boy's clothes. Click on the image for another scene. |
A famous book also made into a movie is Louis Pergaud's La guerre des boutons (The War of Buttons). It describes war between the kids of two villages where our hero invented the war trophy of all buttons of trousers/smocks. I'm not sure to what extent the boys' clothing is described in the book, but the kids arre the main charcters in the movie and there are many scenes in the film. The boys look to be wearing 1950s style clothes. The movie was made by Louis Malle and is very descriptive of French kids and a result French boys' clothing is extensively illustrated, including the smocks that were still commonly worn in the years in which the book was set. A remake of the movie filmed in Ireland was released in 1995 amid some controversy.
A famous book also made into a movie is Louis Pergaud's La guerre des boutons (The War of Buttons).
The book describes a fight between the kids of two villages where our hero invented the war trophy of all buttons of trousers/smocks. As in the book, two bands of boys from nearby villages just can't get along, battle each other after school, remove the buttons of those they capture to humiliate their prisoners. As things escalate between them, can a common bound be found?
The book was set in the French countryside. It concerns the children of two rural French villages.
I'm not sure just when the book was written and the events set in. The available images from the movie used here look like the 1950s.
HBC has noted that many low-budget European films seem to let the boys wear their own clothes rather than costuming them when a film is set in a contemporary period. HBC is unsure just how this film was costumed, if at all.
Quite a range of boys fashions are illustrated in the movie.
Many of the boys in the film wear berets. I do not notice any other types of caps. Not all the boys wear caps, but the ones that do wear berets.
Quite a number of boys wear jackets. If this film had been shot in the 1940s, HBC thinks suit jackets would have been more common. Quite a number of these boys wear jackets that appear to be more of a late 1950s-1960s fashion.
HBC notes that in some scvenes, quite a number of boys appear to wear school smocks.
The boys in the film wear both long and short pants. Short pants seem to be very common.
MOst of the boys wear either short socks or no socks at all. Very few boys wear kneesocks.
The boys wear quite a range of footwear. Several boys wear sneakes. Others wear sandals.
Figure 2.--This boy has just had all the buttons cut off his clothes. Click on the image for another scene. |
The 1961 movie based on the book was made by Louis Malle and is very descriptive of French kids and a result French boys' clothing is extensively illustrated, including the smocks that were still commonly worn in the years in which the book was set.
The film was made in 1961 as La Guerre des boutons staring Jacques Dufilho, Yvette Étiévant, Michel Galabru, Michèle Méritz, Jean Richard, Pierre Tchernia, Pierre Trabaud, Claude Confortès, Paul Crauchet, Henri Labussière, Yves Peneau, Robert Rollis, Louisette Rousseau, François Boyer, Marie-Catherine Faburel, Michel Isella, François Lartigue,
Martin Lartigue, André Treton
A remake of the movie filmed in Ireland was released in 1995 amid some controversy. One reviewer prefers the 1995 remake. He says, "If you prefer "modern" cinema, stick with the remake, but if you can appreciate a good-old original, make sure to check this one out. The two are quite similar, but there are a few differences which should interest any real "buff."
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