I have watched this French film, which is part fiction and part documentary, without the aid of English subtitles (my French is piss-poor), and it did not matter at all. The genius of this work, directed by Georges Rouquier, is not found in its story, which is about a French village and is set in the final years of the second great war of the 20th century, but in the utter beauty of the editing. Here, this key aspect of filmmaking reaches a level of poetry that is musical. Do not watch what’s in the film, but how it moves from shot to shot. It is so smooth, so lyrical. Your eyes will dance to this song of peasant life.