Candide ou l'Optimisme du XXe siècle
Directed byNorbert Carbonnaux
Written byNorbert Carbonnaux
Albert Simonin
Produced byCLM, Société Nouvelle Pathé (France)
StarringJean-Pierre Cassel
Louis de Funès
Music byHubert Rostaing
Distributed byConsortium Pathé
Release date
  • 16 December 1960 (1960-12-16) (France)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

Candide ou l'Optimisme du XXe siècle (English: Candide, or the Optimist of the Twentieth Century[1]) is a 1960 French comedy drama film directed by Norbert Carbonnaux and written by Carbonnaux and Albert Simonin. It stars Jean-Pierre Cassel as Candide, Pierre Brasseur as Pangloss, Louis de Funès as the officer of the Gestapo, and Daliah Lavi as Cunégonde. The film was released under the titles Candide (alternative French title; USA), Candide oder der Optimismus im 20. Jahrhundert (West Germany), Candide, avagy a XX. század optimizmusa (Hungary), and Kandyd czyli optymizm XX wieku (Poland).

Plot

The film is a 20th-century adaptation of Voltaire's 1759 social satire novel Candide, ou l'Optimisme. Set in the World War II-era, it follows the adventures of Candide, an orphaned Westphalian brought up in a baron's chalet. He falls in love with the baron's daughter, Cunégonde, and is thrown out of the house when the baron discovers them kissing. When war breaks out in 1939, Candide is drafted and then captured by the Nazis, but escapes and joins the International Red Cross. Candide's improbable adventures take him into a concentration camp to rescue his tutor, Pangloss; then he is off to South America (where he endures a series of revolutions), Borneo (where he is imprisoned by a primitive tribe), Moscow (where he accidentally foments a missile crisis between the Soviet Union and the United States), and New York (where he gets mixed up in a racial clash). Finally, back in France, he retires to a country house with Cunégonde, Pangloss, and a mysterious lady who saved him from a firing squad, and settles down to write his memoirs.[2][3]

Other film treatments

In 1947 Marcel Carné intended to create a film based on Voltaire's 1759 satire Candide, but production was abandoned.[4] The 1986 film Live from Lincoln Center: Candide was also based on the same novel.[5]

Cast

References

  1. ↑ Skillion, Anne (2001). The New York Public Library literature companion. Simon & Schuster. p. 483. ISBN 0-684-86890-3. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  2. ↑ "Overview for Candide (1962)". Turner Classic Movies. 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  3. ↑ American Film Institute (1996). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1961-1970, Part 2. University of California Press. p. 143. ISBN 0-520-20970-2.
  4. ↑ "Kommentierte Übersicht zu Candide-Verfilmungen und audiovisuellen Materialien". Archived from the original on 6 May 2001. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  5. ↑ "Movie connections for Candide ou l'optimisme au XXe siècle (1960)". IMDb. 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
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