The Return Of Martin Guerre Essay

The movie, The Return of Martin Guerre, directed by Daniel Vigne, was based off of a collection of true historical events depicting one small French village’s conflict and strife over the idea that the man posing to be ‘Martin Guerre’ was really someone else. The conflict became something many could not refute, eventually resulting in the main characters and many others traveling to the ‘Parlement of Toulouse’ for the court to decide.
In the film, there is a set of four main characters, featuring Gérard Depardieu as the ‘fake’ Martin Guerre, Nathalie Baye as Bertrande, Maurice Barrier as Uncle Pierre Guerre, and Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu as the original Martin Guerre. In the years before Martin disappeared, we, the viewers, were able to observe
Protestants believed that certain cases of remarrying was not something to be ashamed of, leading many Catholics to loudly disagree with them.
As the plot continues, pre-disappearance, the viewer is able to witness a village tradition known as charivari, the action of hitting on pots and pans, making noise, and disrupting a person’s peace and quiet to display their disapproval. Charivari was typically used to encorage yet-to-be-wed couples to marry faster, or to express their anger at ‘unnatural’ marriages, such as remarriage of a widow, an older man marrying a younger woman, etc. This village tradition proved to clash with the beliefs of the Protestant Huguenots and the village’s Catholic priest.
The tension between the priest and the Huguenots was not an unprovoked event, as the Huguenots were seen disregarding the priest’s religious practices, confidentiality, and beliefs. Although he could not do anything about it, the priest was obviously very upset with this, his resent for the Huguenots showing throughout the