Maurice Pialat's La Maison des bois 1 (1971)

Coming after Pialat's first feature L'Enfance nue (1968) about a child in host families, it seemed normal that the director should be considered appropriate for this television series, which is in seven parts and in total lasts for more than six hours: this is therefore not a feature film, but stands outside the small total number of ten features which Pialat made, between L'Enfance nue and Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble (1972). Pialat said on occasions that it is his best film, although – a little along the lines of the expression 'Bresson avant Bresson' – others think that Pialat's 'real' film-making began with Loulou (1980).

The first episode is understandably dedicated to exposition, and the setting is rural, in a village in L'Oise, and the time is during the 1914-18 war. Gamekeeper Albert Picard (Pierre Doris) and his wife Jeanne (Jacqueline Dufranne) have a young adult daughter Marguerite (Agathe Natanson) and son Marcel (Henri Puff), but also take in young children whose fathers are fighting and whose mothers have to work, although one of the three women – the mother of Hervé (Hervé Lévy) – has left home permanently. The other children, Michel (Michel Tarrazon) and Bébert (Albert Martinez), are visited regularly by their mothers at La Maison des bois.

In this first part the viewer sees and learns a number of things, such as: the village teacher (Pialat himself) at work; the death of the marquise in a road accident; the churchwarden's liking for the curé's wine.

Conveniently, the French Wikipédia provides a précis of each episode, which I give at the bottom of each post here: as La Maison des bois deserves more than one long blog post, I make seven short ones.

Épisode 1

1 Un soldat en permission – 2 Histoire de France – 3 La marquise est morte – 4 Le goûter à la confiture – 5 La famille Picard – 6 L’oiseau en cage – 7 Le vin de monsieur le cure – 8 Cérémonie mortuaire – 9 Un bon café – 10 Le facteur – 11 Les poules – 12 Jouer à la guerre – 13 Le terrain d’aviation – 14 Le bedeau et la bigote – 15 La chorale – 16 Le marquis et le cafetier – 17 Hervé au château.