The Round Up (2010)

Best movie ever!

Awesome Movie

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

For those who dont know much about France during the II WW is of compulsory watch. It is somehow a must-see. It is also not difficult to follow and not boring, nice music and has a good pace. I would rate in the range of 7/10.

This is my favorite french film, the scenario is perfect, actors too, it's moving, heartbreaking... Simply perfect

Bought this film having read good reviews and have always been an admirer of Jean Reno in the films I have seen him in. I also don't mind watching a film with subtitles.I wasn't expecting the film to be better than what I thought and was pleasantly surprised. Sometimes when you know a film is supposed to be emotional you subconsciously prepare yourself and don't quite get the emotion but this film did it for me.The story of thousands of Jews and their families taken from their homes in Paris and placed in war camps where many are later killed is a powerful one. Never before has this particular episode in French history during the war been told. We see the effect through various Jews eyes of being forced from your home because you happen to be Jewish and how families and friends are torn apart. Those that try to escape who succeed and those who don't, those that cant even face their fate and those that bravely believe that one day again they will be free. It is through the children that much of this story centers, the innocent ones which also carries much of the emotion, the very young children too young to understand what is happening and going to happen to them and the slightly older children that show bravery beyond their years. Also through the eyes of a brave nurse(Melanie Laurent) and a dedicated Doctor (Jean Reno) we see a triumph of the human spirit to never give up and to try and stay united. The emotion in the film never lets up from start to finish and their is a constant mixture of cruelty and horror, impending dread yet tinged with hope and belief. Special praise must go to (Melanie Laurent) who plays the part of a nurse, you can really feel the connection she has with the children as if she is mother to them all. (Jean Reno) is not in the film as much as I expected but his presence is still felt and he can convey great emotion with just his face alone. The child actors are all good and (Udo Schenk)who plays Adolf Hitler is also very good. The music in the film is perfect for the story and the film is just the right length to keep you gripped.A very good retelling of a surprisingly neglected story highly recommended.

It was Saturday night at the cinema and I wasn't quite convinced to watch THE HUNGER GAMES with my sister. Just minutes before getting the tickets for "Hunger Games" I got to see the poster of LA RAFLE (the Mexican title of it is, by the way, an awful one: LOS NIÑOS DE LA ESPERANZA, which means something like THE CHILDREN OF HOPE). While seeing the poster I thought something like this: "Jean Reno and MELANIE LAURENT really should be a better option for this Saturday night". My sister agreed and we went for a completely unknown film for us; a 2010 French film that wasn't released in Mexico City until 23 March 2012. By reading, later on, part of the summary for LA RAFLE I was quite happy with the choice, as I'm always interested in WWII pictures. And yes, by reading the summary some people would have not been quite interested, thinking of this, in a negative way certainly, as YET ANOTHER film about the Holocaust or as yet another French film with Jean Reno in it. Anyway, in the end I did learn new things thanks to it. Actually, for me the negative aspects of the film don't come from not offering something different. They come from having some things that are almost unbelievable. I know that this was based on a true story (a survival story that's simply like a miracle). The film actually remarks you that everything you're about to see is real; but sometimes I felt like I was seeing a *movie* about the Holocaust, with things that made think something like "that only happen in the movies!" I mean, and here it comes a spoiler, there's a part in which the Jewish family from Paris that we are following is separated: the children will remain at the concentration camp in France while the older ones will be taken to Poland. In their goodbye, the mother says to her son -Jo Weismann- that he must live. The boy wants to escape from the camp and so he accomplishes that. The real life Jo Weismann actually appears in the film; the dramatic adaptation of his escape makes you think that it was actually quite easy to make your way out of the camp. Is clearly a case an immense luck (a miracle like I said) but I just didn't feel *real* its dramatic adaption. Actually the real problem comes when you see this and think in previous situations; it was actually my sister who said to me something like "when the girl (the one who escaped pretending to be the plumber's wife) gave a package to the kids inside the camp, why she didn't just help them to escape if it was that simple?" This is certainly just like having plot holes.Now, let's talk about the great things of LA RAFLE and why I learned with it. It has a very interesting narrative, showing both sides of the story: while we get to know the Jewish families we also see the political negotiations between France and Germany; it's basically seeing how some few people decide the destiny of thousands. Adolf Hitler is also portrayed (by Udo Schenk, who did a GREAT work). Those scenes look amazing, and show a sort of different Hitler too: it's the full contrast with the Jewish families as we see him being nice with kids, having fun with his birthday cake or just dancing. The film opens with the classic footage of Hitler in Paris, by the way, and later on we have parts of some scenes presented as it they were recorded footage… really nice detail. If anything LA RAFLE captures perfectly the horrors of not knowing what will happen and the innocence of a child (heartbreaking material certainly). Also the world of those who served as doctors or nurses is portrayed; Reno plays a Jewish doctor and Laurent a nurse (the film actually has a great ensemble cast of both adults and kids). All of this makes it worth watching material, especially for those who don't know a thing of what happened in the Parisian velodrome that was known as the "Vélodrome d'Hiver" during the Nazi occupation of France (I didn't knew anything about this). *Watched it on March 31, 2012