BY LEE PFEIFFER
The IMDB plot summary provided for the 1969 film "Before Winter Comes" refers to the movie as a comedy. One can only imagine the knee-slappers the writer must have enjoyed while watching "Schindler's List". Most assuredly, "Before Winter Comes" is not a comedy. It has a few fleeting moments of levity but it's primarily a serious examination of desperate people in desperate circumstances. The film opens in Austria, shortly after the surrender of Germany in WWII. David Niven plays British Major Burnside, who has just been assigned the thankless task of establishing a camp for displaced persons at a time when the continent is teeming with people who have either fled or who were forcibly taken far away from their homes. Burnside, assisted by his young adjutant, Lt. Pilkington (John Hurt) have to establish order in the rudimentary camp and find an orderly way to process people back to their nations of origin. He has a political problem straight away- half of the camp is run by Soviet troops under the command of Captain Kamenev (Ory Levi) and relations between the Brits and Russians are already strained, with the Cold War having broken out even before the conflict with Germany had ended. Kamenev is aware that few Russian refugees are eager to return to Stalin's murderous autocracy and he wants to ensure that Burnside doesn't intentionally allow Soviet citizens to immigrate to western democracies. Burnside must also deal with the confounding logistics of communicating with masses of people who speak different languages and dialects. A camp refugee, Janovic (Topol) speaks virtually every language and makes himself indispensable to Burnside and Pilkington. He's larger-than-life, humorous and acts as a Mr. Fix-It for problems large and small. In return for his services, Burnside makes it clear he will pull some strings to assure Janovic gets preferential treatment when it comes to his immigration destination.
The film takes a detour with a subplot involving Maria (Anna Karina), a beautiful young woman who owns an inn that has the unfortunate fate of sitting precisely between the British and Soviet sections. Burnside and Kamenev come up with a sensible solution: they divide the dining hall in half with a chain. It doesn't stop the Brits and Russians from taunting each other over vodka-fueled feuds but it does prevent violence from breaking out between soldiers from two nations who were recently allies against Hitler. Much of the running time is devoted to Maria's romantic flings with both Burnside and Janovic, neither of whom knows the other is her lover. Both men fall madly in love with her and allow themselves to dream of reuniting with her in the years ahead but Maria is more pragmatic. She likes both of them but sleeps with them mostly out of pragmatic reasons, primarily to ensure she is protected and receives favors, though satiation of sexual frustrations may also play a role in her motives. Ultimately, both Burnside and Janovic find out the other is involved with Maria, as they compete for her affections. The pace of the movie is leisurely, to say the least. Some might say it's pedantic but I never found it boring or uninteresting. The only real drama is introduced late in the movie when Janovic is discovered to be a deserter from the Russian army. The Soviets insist that Burnside hand Janovic over to them, which would result in a certain death sentence for him. Burnside is conflicted: he has been ordered to comply with the demand by his superior officer, General Bewley (Anthony Quayle having a good time playing a caricature of an old world British general), yet on a humanitarian basis, he can't send this good man to his death. Burnside's agonizing decision provides the only suspense in the film and leads to an ambiguous, but intriguing ending that some viewers may find unsatisfactory.
"Before Winter Comes" was directed by the underrated J. Lee Thompson, who is a bit out of his element here in relation to the genres he specialized in, namely thrillers and action films. The movie's most interesting aspect is the unusual concentration on the plight of the displaced populations in the aftermath of WWII in Europe, a problem that required a Herculean effort by the Allies to provide for these poor souls. The primary pleasure of the film is the performances of the three male leads. Niven is typically excellent as the career army officer trying to rebuild his reputation and Topol displays the kind of unique charisma that allows him to steal every scene in every movie he's in. They are both complimented by freckle-faced young John Hurt, who demonstrates the acting skills that would ultimately make him internationally acclaimed. The film also features a fine, innovative score by Ron Grainer. The Sony region-free DVD presents a decent transfer but unfortunately there are no extras.
"Before Winter Comes" can be recommended to Cinema Retro readers, who tend to enjoy discovering worthy films of the 1960s that have been largely forgotten.
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