''Weekend at Dunkirk'' (french: Week-end à Zuydcoote) is a

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

war drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Henri Verneuil Henri Verneuil (; born Ashot Malakian; 15 October 1920 – 11 January 2002) was a French-Armenian playwright and filmmaker, who made a successful career in France. He was nominated for Oscar and Palme d'Or awards, and won Locarno International Fi ...

and starring

Jean-Paul Belmondo Jean-Paul Charles Belmondo (; 9 April 19336 September 2021) was a French actor and producer. Initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s, he was a major French film star for several decades from the 1960s onward. His best known credits ...

. It is based on the 1949 Prix Goncourt winning novel '' Week-end at Zuydcoote'' (French: ''Week-end à Zuydcoote'') by

Robert Merle Robert Merle (; 28 August 1908 – 27 March 2004) was a French novelist. Early life Merle was born in 1908 in Tébessa, French Algeria. His father Félix, who was an interpreter "with a perfect knowledge of literary and spoken Arabic", was kille ...

Plot

Set during the Battle of Dunkirk, the film follows Julien Maillat, a French Army sergeant who tries to join the British Army on the Royal Navy's boat flotilla to England. No matter how hard he tries to make it, he and his French squad-mates and colleagues are hard-pressed to get away as the fight is getting harder and the Germans closer and closer.

Selected cast

Staff sergeant Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. History of title In origin, certain senior sergeants were assigned to administrative, supervi ...

French Army Julien Maillat *

Catherine Spaak Catherine Spaak (3 April 1945 – 17 April 2022) was a French-born Italian actress and singer who acted in mostly in Italian films with some Hollywood and international productions. She is best known for her roles in the films ''Il Sorpasso'' (1 ...

as Jeanne *

Jean-Pierre Marielle Jean-Pierre Marielle (12 April 1932 – 24 April 2019) was a French actor. He appeared in more than a hundred films in which he played very diverse roles, from a banal citizen ('' Les Galettes de Pont-Aven''), to a World War II hero (''Les Milles ...

as a French military chaplain friend of Maillat * François Périer as Alexandre *

Pierre Mondy Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

as Dhéry * Pierre Vernier as undertaker * Paul Préboist as a soldier * Ronald Howard as captain Robinson * Eric Sinclair : le capitaine Clark * Donald O'Brien as the English sergeant controlling the lines on the beach *

Kenneth Haigh Kenneth William Michael Haigh (25 March 1931 – 4 February 2018) was an English actor. He first came to public recognition for playing the role of Jimmy Porter in the play ''Look Back in Anger'' in 1956 opposite Mary Ure in London's West End ...

: John Atkins * Marie Dubois : Hélène, the French wife of Atkins * Nigel Stock as the English sergeant carrying rocking horse and burned during a German attack *

Christian Barbier Christian Barbier (28 June 1924 – 3 November 2009) was a French film and television actor. Barbier was born at Saint-Ouen, Seine (currently Seine-Saint-Denis), France. During his career (1964 to 1997), he specialized in drama rather t ...

: Paul

Reception

The film was the ninth most popular movie at the French box office in 1964. According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $1,700,000 in rentals to break even and made $1,755,000, meaning it made a profit.

References

External links

*
''Weekend at Dunkirk''
at Le Film Guide * 1964 films 1960s French-language films 1960s war drama films Films directed by Henri Verneuil Films set in 1940 Films set in Dunkirk Dunkirk evacuation films Films set on beaches French war drama films French World War II films Western Front of World War II films Films based on French novels 1964 drama films 1960s French films Italian war drama films Italian World War II films {{war-drama-film-stub