Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Izzy Adkins The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Gizmo This is a fantastic, and fantastically one-off, creepy little comedy that I'd never even heard of before but now wish everyone could see. A desolate, snow-bound 19th century inn lures passing travellers to their doom until a monk and his apprentice happen by to take shelter for the night.As another reviewer here pointed out, it's very much cut from the same cloth as Arsenic And Old Lace, Kind Hearts And Coronets or maybe even Murder By Death. If you like any of those, you'll probably find something to like in this too, with the added bonus of all that snow and eerie atmosphere.It strikes me once again how French cinema was so far ahead of perhaps every other country in the 1950s in terms of freedom of speech and a grown-up worldview. During the years of the Hays Code censorship, Hollywood became forcibly infantilized and incapable of addressing religion, sex and the realities of life in general in any kind of adult manner whatsoever. This movie feels much more like one of Grimm's original fairy tales than the Disney animated version that would have been made in America at the same time.The subtitles in the copy I saw were very poor, and let down much of the comic delivery. This would be an ideal candidate for a Criterion restoration and release.

ericmarseille The crimes of the Peyrebeille inn, in the Ardèche District, by the owners, the Martin couple and their servant Fétiche, horrified 1830 France, therefore earning the inn itself the nickname "auberge rouge", the "red inn".This famous, horrific serial-killing case, taking place in an isolated and lugubrious inn, in that deserted part of France, was too tempting not to make it into a film.The genius of Claude Autan-Lara is to triple it with both a Social and a religious critic ; and to put the icing on the cake, he chose Fernandel, then the undisputed French comical character, for the first role, the role of the monk...Yet one cannot find a darker comedy, and that is probably the greatest charm of the film itself.Summary : in their isolated inn, during a winter snowstorm, the Martins just killed their uptenth victim, a poor barrel organ player, but his pet monkey managed to escape ; at the same time, a monk and a novice ready moving to their convent walk painstakingly in the snow, hoping to find a hospitable home in the way, just as the stagecoach to Privas, carrying eight people including the own daughter of the Martins, is forced to make a stop at the inn for a night.The scenario would be all to familiar if it weren't for the fact that Mrs Martin is determined to confess herself to the monk ; but she does so only at the condition that the monk won't repeat a word she'll tell him, under the holy secret of confess.From that moment, the film turns to an oppressive closed-doors drama, stuffed with tragic-comical situations, twists and turns, as poor Fernandel is torn between his duty to save his Christian brethren, and his duty not to reveal in any way the horrible truth, and the fate, not only of the stagecoach passengers, but most probably of his novice and himself.It is said that Fernandel, who never refused any film but was a devout catholic, was so shaken by the film that he never spoke again to Autan-lara and gratefully took the role of Don Camillo, the good-doing Italian vicar, as a sort of expiation.And it's true that everything has been put in place in this film to make it ambiguous, thick, oppressive despite all of its comical aspects...And that's what makes it a must-see!

dbdumonteil "L'Auberge rouge" has recently been restored,and the copy I saw was wonderful.The pictures are glittering black and white .The subject was not new:the inn where you take your life in your hands when you enter ;such a sinister place was a permanent feature of the FRench melodramas of the nineteenth century.After all ,Hichcock's "psycho" belongs to THAT tradition too,as the Eagles' song "Hotel California" or horror farce "Motel Hell" do.The precedent user wrote that Fernandel and Autant-Lara were at odds during the filming but I do not think that's because he's upstaged by Carette and Françoise Rosay.Actually "l'auberge rouge" was Autant-Lara at his most anti-clerical:the scene when Rosay and Fernandel use a "GRille à Chataignes" (chesnuts grate?) as a confessional grille is sheer genius;many of the scenes may have inspired Luis Bunuel for "la Voie Lactée" and particularly "Phantom of LIberty" a whole segment of which features an inn,monks and vicious things.The problem lies in the fact that such an admirable actor as Fernandel did not fit Autant-Lara's bill (or fitted the bill too well).Fernandel 's acting is so natural,so strong that he throws the movie off balance.He has an obvious tendency to go in the opposite way:his monk is full of joie de vivre ,of bonhomie .Whatever we may think of religion,it's impossible not to side with him.Black humor is everywhere:from the dead body hidden inside a snowman to the travelers' horrible fate -which I will not reveal of course-,from a monkey lost in the snow arrested by the gendarmes to Rosay gently warning her guests about to leave her place:"you'll find the convent easily!You cannot get the wrong way! on the right,you can hear the wolves howl,and on the left you can hear the torrent flowing:it's the precipice!"The snowy landscapes (amazing studio work) are dazzling.Autant-Lara's anti-clericalism (already present in "douce" and "le diable au corps" ) which came to the fore in "l'auberge rouge" muted in the sixties: "Tu ne tueras point" ,his accursed work,showed a young man refusing to be drafted because of his religious beliefs;and "Le Franciscain de Bourges" was the story of a priest, living like a saint in the Nazi hell.

pierrealix French Best Humorist Fernandel was at His peak when he made this movie in 1951..he hated it and never spoke again to its Director Autant-Lara .. The Movie was a Smash but you can easily understand Fernandel's reaction..he is clearly upstaged by the much interesting couple of killers played by Rosay and Carette..The Movie is based on a true story and could be a very good thriller .