By far the most interesting French filmmakers today are Jean-Jacques Annaud and Bertrand Tavernier, both represented by current films. After his stunning debut with Black and White in Color, Annaud, who also made the pleasant but minor Coup de tête, now gives us Quest for Fire, a monumental re-creation of prehistoric man, which, though loosely based on a novel by J. H. Rosny Sr. that Annaud (and I) relished as children, is largely his own idea as developed by his scenarist, Gérard Brach (Repulsion, Tess). Someday Annaud will write the story of the filming in Africa, Scotland, Canada, and, very nearly but finally not, Iceland. From what he told me, this would make a fabulous book; meanwhile, the film is no slouch, either.
Annaud did extensive research into various theories about early man, as well as into the life of modern aborigines; he also hired Anthony Burgess to reinvent an ur-lndo-European tongue, and Desmond Morris to provide a body language for the cavemen. Some of this yields amusing results, but the film is to be enjoyed principally not for the scientific or quasi-scientific baggage it carries, but for its scope and gusto.
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