The Cinematheque

“If I had to choose the one film that best allows the viewer to penetrate into Maurice Pialat’s universe, I would unhesitatingly choose La maison des bois.”

Joël Magny, Cahiers du cinéma

La maison des bois stands as one of the greatest achievements in the history of television as well as legendary director Maurice Pialat’s magnum opus. Commissioned for French TV, Pialat and screenwriter René Wheeler crafted a seven-episode miniseries about the impact of World War I on a simple French family living in the countryside. Applying a naturalistic focus to their subject, Pialat and Wheeler capture both the historical scope of the conflict and the subtle ways that a small town’s quotidian routines and rituals—church, school, tavern—are indelibly touched by it. At the center of the richly detailed narrative are the Picards, headed by a game warden for the wooded estate of a local marquis. He and his gentle wife raise two teenagers—one at risk of being drafted, the other contemplating marriage—and shelter three abandoned boys for the duration. Most rambunctious and soulful is Hervé, whose journey from boyhood to adolescence lends the series its beating heart. A panoramic tale that explores the longing, loyalty, and resilience that sustain humanity amid times of earth-shattering loss. —Janus Films

In French with English subtitles

“With characters for whom one gradually develops a profound empathy, and an insistence on recording the world as it is, La maison des bois often strikes me as Pialat’s best film.”

Serge Kaganski, Film Comment

“Like any great film, it teaches you how to better watch it as it goes along … An impassioned interrogation of childhood memory, a solemn acknowledgment of the spoils of wartime, and one of the most rewarding (and devastating) experiences a moviegoer can have.”

Steve Macfarlane, Screen Slate