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King of Hearts (1966, Fr.)
(aka Le Roi de Cur)
In director Philippe De Broca's cult classic sleeper
film about the insanity of war - a quirky anti-war fable set at the
end of WWI:
- the character of lone, kilt-wearing, French-speaking,
Signal Corps Scottish soldier Private Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates),
an ornithologist and poetry-lover, who was dispatched to the small
French village of Marville, to defuse a German-placed, booby-trapped
bomb in the town square's clock tower before midnight (the bomb
was set to detonate when the armored knight figure in the steeple
clock struck the midnight gong with a mace) - he was instructed: "Find
the explosives and disarm the fuse"
- the scene of Private Plumpick entering the town, and
when spotted by Germans, seeking refuge behind the iron gates of
the local "ASILE D'ALIENES" (translated 'Insane Asylum')
- Private Plumpick masqueraded in the French village
as the coronated 'King of Hearts' among the inhabitants - all insane
and crackpot asylum inmates who had merrily assumed 'normal' roles
in the town for a short while during an emergency evacuation in World
War I when the gates of the asylum were left open, and they were
free to raid the abandoned shops and adopt festive costumes
- the King of Hearts' acceptance of a queen and/or consort
- the beautiful young coquettish Coquelicot (French Canadian actress
Genevieve Bujold), an acrobat and dancer
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'King of Hearts' With Coquelicot
(Genevieve Bujold) as His Queen
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- the sequence of the defusing of the bomb just minutes
before midnight, and the village's subsequent celebration with
fireworks, but the commotion alerted the Germans to return, and
there was tremendous carnage when the Scottish and German forces
slaughtered each other in the town
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Inmates Returning 'Home' to the Asylum After Walking
Over Carnage of Bodies Lying in Town's Courtyard
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Inmates Voluntarily Locking Themselves Behind
Asylum's Iron Gates
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- the sequence of the frightened inmates voluntarily
and calmly returning
"home" to their asylum; they discarded their colorful costumes
and props and locked themselves behind the asylum's iron gates; Plumpick
was awarded a special "army citation"
for bravery by the liberating French troops
- the film's final famous shot of a naked Charles who
had been reassigned to another mission; he almost immediately deserted
his Scottish regiment (and stripped off his uniform) as his truck
left town; he was holding a birdcage (with his carrier pigeon) in
front of the asylum's iron gates, where he was ready to ring the
bell (as two startled asylum nuns approached), to rejoin and be committed
with his asylum inmate friends in their world; his romanticized view
was that they seemed more sane than the real world of his own military
regiment
- the conclusion, in which the 'King of Hearts' was
warmly greeted by his inmate friends and was seen playing cards with
them; they congratulated him: ("Well, you're here now. And you
won't be running off anymore")
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- the last line was spoken by one of the card-playing
inmates who approached an open window and exclaimed: ("The
most beautiful journeys are taken through the window")
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Pvt. Plumpick - Finding Refuge in the French Town's Insane
Asylum
The Liberation of the Inmates
Pvt. Plumpick: Temporarily Coronated as 'King of
Hearts' by Asylum Inmates
'King of Hearts' Watched Arrival of Liberating French
Troops
Charles' Departure From the Town - He Jumped From
Regiment's Truck, and Stood Naked at Asylum Gates For Entry
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