Five Frenchmen, one wine cellar, nuclear apocalypse. Who needs radiation when you have petty bourgeois drama?
In southern France, in a quiet little town, the mayor, who also owns a castle with some cattle, is in the wine cellar with some other people: the pharmacist, the veterinary, and some of his employees. As they are drinking wine, they hear a terrible noise and the heat's getting higher and higher. They don't realize what's happening: when they come out of the cellar, they realize that everything has burned, and all the buildings are destroyed...
Acting
Trintignant's simmering Fulbert steals every scene with quiet menace.
Production
The castle location feels genuinely lived-in, not post-apocalyptic set dressing.
Director
Christian de Chalonge
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Robert Merle's 1972 novel, which was itself inspired by his WWII resistance experience—he knew how quickly neighbors become captors.
The 1981 release made it a Cold War artifact, but its critique of masculine 'rational' leadership feels almost painfully contemporary—Emmanuel's endless committee meetings are a slow-motion tragedy.
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