Before Winter Comes
1969 | 103m | English
Popularity: 1 (history)
| Director: | J. Lee Thompson |
|---|---|
| Writer: | Andrew Sinclair |
| Staring: |
| Drama/Comedy set in a refugee camp in occupied Austria after World War II. A shrewd multi-lingual interpreter who mediates between Russian and British military brass enters into a friendly rivalry with British Major Giles Burnside, who is in charge of assigning the displaced persons into either the American or Russian zones. | |
| Release Date: | Jan 17, 1969 |
|---|---|
| Director: | J. Lee Thompson |
| Writer: | Andrew Sinclair |
| Genres: | Comedy, Drama |
| Keywords | |
| Production Companies | Columbia Pictures, Windward |
| Box Office |
Revenue: $0
Budget: $0 |
| Updates |
Updated: Aug 04, 2024 (Update) Entered: Apr 26, 2024 |
| Name | Character |
|---|---|
| David Niven | Major Burnside |
| Topol | Janovic |
| Anna Karina | Maria |
| John Hurt | Lieutenant Pilkington |
| Anthony Quayle | Brigadier Bewley |
| Ori Levy | Captain Kamenev |
| John Collin | Sergeant Woody |
| Karl Stepanek | Count Kerassy |
| Guy Deghy | Kovacs |
| Mark Malicz | Komenski |
| Gertan Klauber | Russian Major |
| Hana Maria Pravda | Beata |
| George Innes | Bill |
| Tony Selby | Ted |
| Christopher Sandford | Johnny |
| Constantine Gregory | Russian Corporal |
| Hugh Futcher | Joe |
| Colin Spaull | |
| Larry Dann | |
| Jeffry Wickham | |
| John Savident | |
| Albert Shepherd | |
| Bruno W. Pantel | |
| Hans Epskamp | |
| Nora Minor | |
| Liselotte Quilling | |
| Harry Kalenberg | |
| Eduard Linkers | |
| Gisela Fritsch |
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| J. Lee Thompson | Director |
| Ron Grainer | Original Music Composer |
| Andrew Sinclair | Screenplay |
| Willy Kemplen | Editor |
| Gilbert Taylor | Director of Photography |
| Ariel Levy | Assistant Director |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Robert Emmett Ginna | Producer |
| Organization | Category | Person |
|---|
Popularity History
| Year | Month | Avg | Max | Min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 1 |
| 2024 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 2 |
| 2024 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 1 |
| 2024 | 7 | 5 | 14 | 2 |
| 2024 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 2 |
| 2024 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 2024 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 2024 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 2024 | 12 | 4 | 12 | 2 |
| 2025 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| 2025 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 2025 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Trending Position
David Niven stars in this rather unremarkable post-war comedy drama set in an Austrian camp that sorts out and repatriates displaced people. He leads the British contingent with Ori Levy ("Capt. Kamenev") his Russian counterpart with whom he has an uneasy sort of truce. Topol is their charismatic in ... terpreter/peace broker "Janovic" who oils the wheels of their procedures - but he has a secret and when Niven and the Russian find out, he finds life becomes quite precarious. The comedy struggles, to be honest - Niven tries hard, but Topol too hard - neither seem to really want to be here. The presence of the naively optimistic young "Lieut. Pilkington" (John Hurt) and the cynical "Brig. Bewley" (Anthony Quayle) - who is aware of an incident in Niven's past, suggests that there is an underlying message in the film, but nothing really hits home. There are duty versus compassion clashes, and imperialist versus communist ones too - but the setting and characterisations don't support any real substance to these, and the films flails a bit before an ending that is surprisingly robust.