Product Details

• Actors: White Mane
• Directors: Albert Lamorisse
• Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: French (Unknown)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Studio: Criterion Collection
• DVD Release Date: April 29, 2008
• Run Time: 40 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0012Z361W
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,148 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #12 in	Movies & TV > Classics > International > France
  #55 in	Movies & TV > Art House & International > By Original Language > French
  #61 in	Movies & TV > Kids & Family > Animals

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
As in Albert Lamorisse's classic fable The Red Balloon, a boy forms a unique attachment in the less fanciful, if equally lyrical White Mane. While the 1956 color film takes place in modern Paris, the filmmaker's 1953 effort plays like an old black and white western. In the opening sequence, White Mane ("Crin Blanc") enjoys a life of freedom in the dusty Camargue region of Southern France. Local cowboys, portrayed by the herdsmen of Les Saints-Maries-de-la-Mer, attempt to capture him, but the wild horse keeps evading their clutches. Young fisherman Folco (Alain Emery), who lives with his grandfather and younger brother (the director's son, Pascal, star of The Red Balloon), finds himself entranced by the proud creature. In Folco's dreams, they become friends, but the horse prefers to associate with his own kind. That dynamic starts to change once White Mane realizes Folco isn't like the adults trying to tame him. The boy doesn't want to change the horse, and a relationship develops based on mutual trust. This luminous transfer features spare narration, in French or a newly-recorded English version, and minimal dialogue in favor of a flute-dominated score and chase-oriented action (which may be too intense for younger viewers). Just as the 34-minute Red Balloon won an Oscar, the 40-minute White Mane won a Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival (the two often screen together). Other than the trailer and an essay from Michael Koresky, this long-awaited release forgoes special features. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description
In the south of France, in a near-desert region called La Camargue, lives White Mane, a magnificent stallion and the leader of a herd of wild horses too proud to let themselves be broken in by humans. Only Folco, a young fisherman, manages to tame him. A strong friendship grows between the boy and the horse, as the two go looking for the freedom that the world of men won t allow them. Long unavailable in the U.S., this extraordinarily shot wonder from Albert Lamorisse, the director of The Red Balloon, is a work of technical sophistication and immense natural beauty.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could be the Most Beautiful Black and White Cinematography Ever, May 14, 2008

By	Gerard D. Launay (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I gasp at the beauty of this film...the only way to describe it is to imagine a nature photograph of Edward Weston or Ansel Adams coming to life. The story is simple enough. A wild horse that runs free in the South of France is captured by some French "cowboys", yet refuses to be tamed and breaks free. Despite several efforts of the cowboys to retrieve this pick of the horses, White Mane will only allow himself to be handled by a young boy - the son of a fisherman in harmony with nature. But it is not the story that makes this film sing...it is the combination of some of the most beautiful, lyrical images I have ever seen on the screen, the folk music of the South of France, and the very sparse narration in the French language. So therefore, it is a film where nature in the raw unfolds before our eyes...without distractions of unnecessary conversation or sentimental music.

A few words about the fighting among the horses. Everyone knows this is common to determine status and rank in the herd. That is reality...in the animal world and, alas, in the human world also. What the film does is depict "White Man" as he truly is, wild. untamed, and even a little brutal.

This is poetry in film, plain and simple. This is allegory. And it is even ballet as the music - when it is played - is coordinated so perfectly with the movement of the cowboys or the horse. If you are someone who finds joy in watching a jackrabbit scampering along the cracked earth with a wild stallion accompanying his rhythms, then this is the film for you.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A minor classic, January 31, 2008

By	Anthony Clarke (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I saw this movie very many years ago, and the magic remains. Albert Lamorisse crafted a simple tale, almost without words, of a fisher-boy in France's Camargue region, and his love for the wild white stallion whose independence and freedom is threatened by man. The black and white photography is luminous, dazzling with its intense beauty. And the film's ending will stay with you forever.
Criterion is releasing on two separate DVDs two short movies by Lamorisse shot around the same time -- this one, and the better-known 'Balloon Rouge' or 'Red Balloon', made a handful of years later. Such a shame these two films, which total just 90 minutes together, could not have been released together on just one disc. 'Crin Blanc' is the finer of the two. It is a film for all people, of all ages.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A captivating film for the child in each of us., February 21, 2008

By	G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

After first seeing them as a child, I recently experienced a theatrical double feature of the beautifully restored prints of The Red Balloon and White Mane, soon to be released by Janus Films in newly-restored DVD format. (The Criterion Collection released a laserdisc of the films in 1986.) French award-winning filmmaker, Albert Lamorisse is best known for The Red Balloon (Le Ballon rouge) (1956), which not only earned him the Palme d'Or Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, but an Oscar that same year (the only dialogue-free film ever to win the award). His forty-seven minute film, White Mane (also known as Crin-Blanc, Crin Blanc, and Cheval Sauvage) (1953), also won numerous awards when it was released, including the the Palme d'Or Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. White Mane follows the adventures of a young boy named Folco (Alain Emery), who befriends an untamable wild white stallion named White Mane in the marshes of Camargue, France. When (in a scene reminiscent of Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar) a gang of ranchers try to spook White Mane by setting fire to the area he lives, Folco jumps on White Mane and rides him bareback across the marshes of Camargue and over the sparse dunes to an island where horses and children coexist as friends forever. This is an equally poignant and truly enchanting film that will captivate children of all ages.

G. Merritt