Although it might not belong in the 'neglected masterpiece' category this tender, poignant and beautifully understated film deserves to be far better known.

Henri Colpi and Yasmine Chesnay had together contributed superlative editing to 'Hiroshima, mon amour' and 'Last year at Marienbad'. This is Colpi's directorial debut and Chesnay is credited with montage. The tempo is 'lento' throughout and severely tests the attention span of the average viewer. It gradually draws you in however and is ultimately richly rewarding.

Therese feels sure that she recognises in the tramp who passes her bistro every day the husband that was arrested by the Gestapo and deported fifteen years earlier. He is suffering from amnesia and she sets about helping him to restore his memory. Even when he suddenly departs she does not give up hope and says "I will wait until Winter."

The two central performances of Alida Valli and Georges Wilson are simply stunning and the last thirty minutes or so represent film making at its best. The scenes that stand out are those in which she uses the amnesiac's love of Rossini's operas to try and unlock his mind and that in which she discovers the deep scar on his skull as they dance to the delightful 'trois petites notes de musique' of Georges Delerue.

Both the director and writer Marguerite Duras have succeeded admirably in depicting the strength and constancy of a woman's love but also, in Colpi's own words, "the fundamental impossibility of two human beings to communicate."

This almost poetic movie owes almost everything to Alida Valli. If her relatively thick Italian accent in her French is there because ... or just couldn't be avoided; I don't know.

She's attractive, emotionally, stable. Very much to be adored. Until that clochard (that's what they called him in the French original) happened to pass by. She thinks it is her husband, who had lost his memories. Probably. In real life a women is able to identify, from scars, marks, hands if it is the person. In this movie, she tries with other ways. Like having people tell ridiculously loud and artificially stories that the man ought to know, familiar names. Playing music that they knew about - in case it is him.

This produces a somewhat surreal sphere at times, like when she watches him for his morning routine.

It does get really captivating when she invites him to her place, including dancing together. This is done quite remarkable from the angle of cinematography as well as acting.

The less convincing part is to be seen on the side of Colpi. He might have lacked courage or talent to scratch Duras' topic down to the ground of the story. Hoovering somewhere between Carné's poetic cinema and Bunuel's surrealism, he doesn't show to have a clear grasp on where he actually wanted to go with the story, and Valli.

Actually, I would have loved to see that same story being directed by Bunuel. He would have stirred up quite a larger number of lights to shine over the plot. Or Carné, to make it more poetic, more of a fairy tale.

In the end, what I liked, and why this IS a spoiler review, the clochard disappears without the hero or the audience knowing if it actually was her husband.

And here, it is my personal guess, that he wasn't and isn't. Despite of her strong realism in everything else, I can't get off the feeling that she imagined things. She was very much longing for her husband to return, after so many years. So that - in the end - she took a number of similarities to build her small dream world within all that realism. The end of the story, with her thinking 'have to wait. Winter, summer, have to wait' to me is that clear indication that she is waiting for her husband. And that she would accept anyone that fits into her imagination, her dreams about her long lost love.

For many amateurs associated with cinema, a successful film need to be entertaining with too many sequences occurring with great speed. If such is the concept which defines 'cinema' and 'films' then it would not be incorrect to apply the concept of slowness to many films whose 'real action' come into being only when all the characters and their roles have been clearly defined. This is the case with "The Long Absence"/"Une Aussi Longue Absence" directed by Henri Colpi. Among its important awards one can mention two important recognitions-Palme d'Or award 1961 and Louis Delluc prize 1960.Nothing spectacular happens within the first thirty minutes of this film. However, what gets shown during this time duration has a direct bearing on this film's title. Henri Colpi has set his film during post 14th July ("Quatorze Juillet" parade) holiday season in a quiet Parisian suburb where very few cars can be seen on roads, people know each other quite well and meet regularly at the local bar to listen to music and radio while having a few drinks. This film's 'real action' takes shape when the woman bar owner meets a tramp. This meeting has fatal consequences for both people. For a film based on a real story involving people who lost their families and memories during the war, Italian actress Alida Valli is excellent in her role as the female bar owner who is too obsessed about the memory of her husband who was left to fend for himself during deportation. It is her immense love for her husband which persuades her to view the tramp as her late husband. Actor Georges Wilson portrays his role with utmost care to reveal a tramp who is conscientious to the core. He is the one who delineates himself as the master of his destiny in all situations whether it is about appearance, choice of music or dwelling. There are not so many films which feature mature themes like companionship, life, loss of memory, obsession and war. Henri Colpi's film is considered a classic as well as a masterpiece due to its perfect handling and treatment of these life affirming themes.