La Guerre des Films

On our recent trip to France... we saw reproduction vintage posters for La Guerre des Boutons scattered throughout the Metro stations. With our limited language skills we determined that showings of the film being advertised were in conjunction with the release of a new version of the movie based on an even older book of the same name.

Back at home, while researching the entire topic of La Guerre des Boutons (because of course we are all over anything button-related) we were, as often the case, confused. This time however, it was with good reason. 2011 sees the release of not one, but two versions of the same story. Here we try to sort it out for you (because we know you will not sleep well until we do) even though it is unlikely that we will have access to any of the film versions of this French story.

La Guerre des Boutons or War of the Buttons is a 1962 French film directed by Yves Robert, about two rival kid gangs whose playful combats escalate into violence. The title derives from the buttons that are cut-off from the rival team's clothes as combat trophies. The film is based on "La Guerre des Boutons" a novel by Louis Pergaud (1882-1915), who was killed in action in the First World War and whose works portray a fervent anti-militarism.
The young and largely untrained actors included André Treton ("Lebrac"), Michel Isella ("l'Aztec") and Martin Lartigue ("Petit Gibus"). The character Petit Gibus's line of dialogue - uttered in frustration - "si j'aurais su, j'aurais pas v'nu" ("if I woulda known, I wouldn'ta come"), with its incorrect grammar (the correct form should be: "si j'avais su, je ne serais pas venu") has become a familiar tagline in France (the line was not in the original novel). - Wikipedia


1962 original La Guerre des Boutons by Yves Robert.

2011 remake number one by Yann Samuel.

2011 remake number 2 (la nouvelle) by Christophe Barratier.



Whew. That was alot of work. Didn't know what we were getting into. Si j'aurais su, j'aurais pas v'nu.