King of Hearts (1966)
Directed by Philippe de Broca
An ornithologist mistaken for an explosives expert is sent alone into a small French town during WWI to investigate a garbled report from the resistance about a bomb which the departing Germans have set to blow up a weapons cache.
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What critics compared King of Hearts to
The film is a diabolically anti-authoritarian satire that sits comfortably alongside Phillippe de Broca's 1966 WWII asylum themed "King of Hearts."
Shooting in restrained black-and-white, and drawing from scores by 1960s Georges Delerue themes from movies like “King of Hearts,” “Promise at Dawn” and “Contempt,” “Frances Ha” is post-nouvelle vague but in the richest possible cinephilic manner.
Richard LaGravenese's script follows in the tradition of A Thousand Clowns, King of Hearts and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, in which a character whom society sees as crazy or irresponsible proves to be wiser than the respected guardians of morality.
You may also enjoy satiric takes on war like “Oh, What a Lovely War,” “M*A*S*H,” and “King of Hearts.”
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As Peary notes, this black comedy by director Hal Ashby remains “one of the most popular of all cult movies” — one which, unlike King of Hearts (another counter-culture hit of the era), actually “holds up quite well today”.