Drummer-Crab
"Le Crabe Tambour" ("Drummer Crab") is the nickname for the mysterious central character, Willsdorff (Jacques Perrin), an Alsatian, whose doomed, out-of-date career is recalled through the tales of three naval officers currently serving aboard a French supply ship in the North Atlantic.
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📋 Film Details
| Original Title | Le Crabe-Tambour |
| Year | 1977 |
| Country | France |
| Genre | Drama, War |
| Director | Pierre Schoendoerffer |
| Runtime | 120 min. |
| Rating | TMDB: 6.6/10 (68 votes) |
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🎬 MovieFinder's Take
Pierre Schoendoerffer constructs the narrative as a layered mosaic, relying on the intersecting memories of three officers. He explores not events themselves, but their refraction in memory and the myth-making around a charismatic figure, using the austere sea as a metaphor for inner exile.
What lingers after the final frame is a profound sense of melancholy and admiration for a vanishing code of honor, a haunting elegy for doomed romanticism. — MovieFinder Editorial
Director: Pierre Schoendoerffer
Best Watched
Best viewed uninterrupted, allowing its maritime rhythm to take hold.
🎭 Cast
Jean Rochefort
Captain, commander of the escort ship
Claude Rich
Pierre, medical officer
Jacques Perrin
Lieutenant Willsdorff, 'Le Crabe-Tambour'
Aurore Clément
Aurore, nurse in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon
Odile Versois
The wife at the bistro of the former gendarme
Pierre Rousseau
Babourg, former sailor
Jacques Dufilho
Chief mechanic
François Dyrek
Former gendarme, boss of the bistro
Jean Champion
Admiral Dönitz's admirer at the bistro
Bernard Lajarrige
Rector
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