Farrebique ou Les quatre saisons

Feb 11 1947 N/A 1h 30m
Documentary

Farrebique, the first feature-length effort of French documentary filmmaker Georges Rouqier, is widely regarded as his finest film. Rouqier concentrates on a single French farm family, following them through the four seasons. As in the works of Robert Flaherty, the human characters and the land surrounding them are "one", and Rouqier never misses an opportunity to parallel their lives with the eons-old phases of nature. The final symbolic images of Spring, achieved through time-lapse photography, are almost unbearably beautiful. The winner of several festival awards, Farrebique nonetheless did not immediately result in an outpouring of financing for Rouqier's follow-up films (this was a common problem in the financially strapped French film industry of the 1940s). Perhaps as a result, Rouqier did not make his sequel, Biquefarre (filmed in the same region, with some of the same "actors"), until 1983.

Plot

The story of a family of peasants during a whole year,following the circle game of the seasons . It shows the rural life in France just after WW2 as it was.Not a comfortable one;electricity is coming and it improves a bit their harsh live;the children go to school -but unfortunately,we do not see them at school-;religion plays a prominent part : a scene on the farm shows the whole family praying the Lord;another one takes place in the church where the whole congregation sings the Kyrie in Greek (!) then listens to the priest's Latin words.Life goes on...the father dies ...and the younger son's leaving for the town,for the eldest boy's task is to follow his father's traces whereas the younger's is to move on and set up home somewhere else.

Written by

C. Blanchard, Georges Rouquier

Directed by

Georges Rouquier

Cast

N/A

Crew

View crew

Production Countries

France

Production Companies

Écran Français, Les Films Etienne Lallier

Languages

, Français

Awards

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award1 win & 2 nominations total

Scores
# of Votes
294
Average Rating
7.2 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA