Un singe en hiver – Film screening and meeting

21 October 2023 at the D-DAY Experience

On September 23, 2023, as part of the Jean Gabin exhibition at Carentan’s Normandy Victory Museum and in partnership with the DDAY Experience, which lent us its hall, Henri Verneuil’s brilliant film starring Jean Gabin, “Un singe en hiver”, took place.

Film un singe en hiver, gabin and belmondo

To replay again and again!

In this legendary film by Henri Verneuil, with dialogue by Michel Audiard, “Un singe en hiver” (“A Monkey in Winter”). Jean Gabin, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Suzanne Flon give us a slice of life that’s at once funny, profound and poetic, against a backdrop of journeys from China to Normandy to more ethereal places invited by alcohol.

At the end of the session, the audience was treated to a discussion with Mathias Moncorgé (son of Jean Gabin) and Sophie and Patrick Malakian (children of Henri Verneuil).

The movie

In 1944, Albert Quentin (Jean Gabin), a hotelier in Normandy, drinks regularly to “travel” and relive his past adventures as a marine rifleman in China. During a bombing raid, he swears to his wife not to touch another glass of alcohol if their establishment is spared. Years later, young Gabriel Fouquet (Jean-Paul Belmondo) comes to spend a few nights at the hotel and brings with him the temptation to “travel”.

A screening for a good cause

All profits from the evening were paid as a donation to the Perce-Neige foundation, created in 1966 by Lino Ventura.

The “Perce neige” Foundation

A legendary French actor, Lino Ventura was also the father of a “child like no other”. His fight to raise society’s awareness of disability was his life’s work. It was a role that gave rise to the Perce-Neige Foundation, now chaired by his grandson Christophe Lasserre-Ventura.

Find out more on the foundation’s website

The “Jean Gabin, la guerre c’est pas du cinéma” exhibition

This year, make the most of your stay in Normandy to discover the incredible career of an icon of French cinema, Jean GABIN. A man who refused to “stay in the dark” when his country and his compatriots were going so badly. Claustrophobic and afraid of fire, he nevertheless became a tank commander. Far from the glitter and fame, among his brothers in arms, he is Jean Moncorgé, a combatant like any other. The “Jean Gabin, la guerre c’est pas du cinéma” exhibition, organised with and thanks to Gabin’s son Mathias Moncorgé and curator Patrick Glâtre, sheds light on a period of his life about which he spoke very little out of modesty, believing that he had “just” done his duty.

The exhibition takes place at the Normandy Victory Museum from April 1 to May 20, 2024. Read more