A Monkey in Winter (French: Un singe en hiver) is a 1962 French film directed by Henri Verneuil, starring Jean Gabin and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Michel Audiard wrote the dialogues. It is the film adaptation of the 1959 novel of the same title by Antoine Blondin.
Albert Quentin (Gabin) is a recovered alcoholic. He owns a hotel in a small town in Normandy. One night, Gabriel Fouquet (Belmondo) turns up at the hotel. He immediately goes to a nearby bar to get drunk. His behaviour when he is drunk reminds Quentin about his own when he was an alcoholic.
A Monkey in Winter provides examples of:
- Action Prologue: In the prologue, Albert Quentin and Esnault run through the streets of Tigreville during a bombing of the town.
- Addiction Displacement: Albert Quentin, a recovered alcoholic, eats sweets to replace alcohol.
- The Alcoholic:
- Gabriel Fouquet drinks a lot. Even the hard-drinking locals are surprised. His wife dumped him because of that.
- Albert Quentin is a recovered alcoholic, but he goes Off the Wagon.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Playing the bullfighter with cars in the role of bulls certainly counts.
- Animal Motifs: Albert Quentin compares Gabriel Fouquet with a monkey. According to him, monkeys often get lost in towns in Asia by early winter. People have to help them so that they get back to the forest.
- Bittersweet Ending: Albert Quentin had some fun hanging around with Gabriel Fouquet. He managed to cheer Fouquet up and he helped him to reconnect with his daughter. But in the end, a text tells that Albert Quentin now faces his own long winter.
- Book Ends:
- In the prologue, Albert Quentin is drunk and he is surrounded by explosions, because the allies bomb the town. Near the end, he is also drunk and he is surrounded by the explosions of fireworks.
- In the beginning, Gabriel Fouquet arrives at the Trouville-Deauville train station. In the end, he goes back there with his daughter and Albert Quentin.
- Call-Back: When he decides to get drunk with Gabriel Fouquet, Albert Quentin brings him to the Asian bar/brothel where he was drinking with Esnault in the prologue.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The fireworks in Landru's shop are showed when Fouquet buys a pullover for his daughter. They are used in the end when Albert Quentin and Gabriel Fouquet are drunk.
- Fouquet's daughter hides in a bunker with a friend. After blowing up fireworks, Albert Quentin and Gabriel Fouquet hide in the same bunker.
- Cloudcuckoolander:
- Albert Quentin, who imagines to be a soldier in China when he gets drunk.
- Gabriel Fouquet, who imagines to be a bullfighter when he gets drunk (he thinks that cars are bulls).
- Landru, a quirky shopkeeper who accepts to blow up fireworks in the middle of the night for no reason.
- Madame Victoria, the headmaster of the boarding school who only speaks English, even if she is French.
- Deceptively Silly Title: The monkey appears in a tale told by Albert Quentin and represents Gabriel Fouquet. The title is deceptive for a film about two alcoholics.
- Distant Prologue: The prologue is set during World War II, fifteen years before the rest of the film.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Gabriel Fouquet drinks because his wife dumped him, but he drank beforehand: his wife dumped him because he drank.
- Drunken Song: Albert Quentin and Gabriel Fouquet sing "Nuit de Chine" when they are drunk.
- The Film of the Book: The film is based on a 1959 book of the same title by Antoine Blondin.
- Gratuitous English: The headmaster of the boarding school only speaks English (with a terrible accent), even if she is French.
- If We Survive This: During the bombing of the town, Albert Quentin tells his wife that, if they survive, he will stop drinking. He keeps his promise, until Gabriel Fouquet shows up.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Albert Quentin does not get along well with the other locals because he has different interests: he likes the poems of Guillaume Apollinaire, who the locals mix up with Apollinaris, a brand of mineral water.
- Off the Wagon: Finally, Albert Quentin decides to get drunk with Gabriel Fouquet.
- Recovered Addict: Albert Quentin was an alcoholic. He completely stopped drinking after the war.
- Shoutout: In the bar, the locals tell Fouquet that Quentin likes the poems of Guillaume Apollinaire, who they mix up with Apollinaris, a brand of mineral water.
- Student–Master Team: In the field of alcoholism, Gabriel Fouquet is a newbie. Albert Quentin, an old master, teams up with him.
- The Teetotaler: Albert Quentin is a recovered alcoholic and he does not drink a single drop of alcohol, until he meets Gabriel Fouquet.
- Time-Passes Montage: The prologue ends with a shot of the sign of the street of the hotel, which is named "Rue du Maréchal Pétain". Then there is an identical shot, but the name of the street has changed to "Rue du Général de Gaulle". Fifteen years have passed.
