Le Vieux Fusil (aka The Old Gun) (1975)

Set in France in 1944 during the waning days of WWII, a surgeon (Philippe Noiret) drives to a remote village where his wife (Romy Schneider) and daughter (Catherine Delaporte) are staying to avoid the German occupation. However, when he arrives, he finds his wife and daughter brutally slaughtered along with the rest of the village. Based on the horrific massacre at Oradour Sur Glane in 1944 and directed by Robert Enrico. The film was highly admired in France and won the best picture Cesar (the French Oscar) as well as a best actor Cesar for Noiret. Unfortunately, in spite of it being based an actual incident, I found it not very different than your usual revenge drama like DEATH WISH but with Nazis instead of New York street thugs. Of course, it's more high toned what with Noiret having flashbacks of happier days in between the slaughter and the film seems to think it's more than just an exploitation vengeance action movie. I'm a huge fan of both Noiret and Schneider as actors and they're both very good here but in the end, I found it rather pointless. With Karl Michael Vogler, Madeleine Ozeray, Jean Bouise and Robert Hoffman.