I seen it only once and could not see the finish of it and it has
bugged me ever since. Apparently a true story , it tells the tale of a
woman in middle ages Europe whose husband goes off to war and does not
return for many years. He eventually turns up and returns to wife to
resume life as normal. He effectively does this but other men from war
zone swear that they were with same man who died in  warzone  so that
person now claiming to be wifes husband could not possibly be her
original husband. It became big story in Europe at the time like
controversies today such as OJ case and other such mysteries.
Eventually a  group of eminent judges and legal people had to assemble
in the village(in France I think) and conduct an inquiry to resolve
the matter once and for all. At that point I had to leave and never
seen nor heard of movie ever since.

 The movie, I realise,  has a very similar theme to r movie that
starred Richard Gere a few years back but movie I speak of was made
many years before the Gere one.

 Whats the movie??

Dear John, 

The story is, indeed, "Return of Martin Guerre" (1983), as Bryan
cleverly remembered. It is not placed exactly in the Middle Ages, but
towards the end of that period, in the 16th century. The Americans, as
we all know, love to remake French films, since they are probably
afraid that their movie goers might just see something that is
subversively non-American and would be fully aware that there's a
place beyond the ocean where people don't speak English. So they took
this one, and instead of the Martin Guerre story, they remade it into
the film "Sommersby" (1993), with Richard Gere playing the same role
that Gerard Depardieu had done in the first one; and the war is the
Civil War. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108185/>. Having watched
both, I must say I like Depardieu and the first version better, but
it's purely a matter of taste.

However, the most inetersting fact about the film is that it is based
on a real story. In the 16th century, there had been a trail of a man
who pretended to be someone else and who assumed the other man's
former life (and wife) as his own. Read more:
Rob West, "Martin Guerre's Homecoming - A Review/ Critique of The
Return of Martin Guerre by Natalie Zeamon Davis",  Indiana University
Southeast Student Page
<http://homepages.ius.edu/RVEST/MartinGuerre.html>

The book itself, if you want to read it: 
Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1984) - the historical research, Prof. Zemon
Davis is the person who researched the subject and was also a
"historical advisor" on the set.

Brainy Encyclopedia has a pretty good account of Martin Guerre's "real
life". The film is apparently pretty accurate, because of Zemon-Davis'
presence on the set:
Brainy Encyclopedia, "Martin Guerre",
<http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/m/ma/martin_guerre.html>.

I hope this answered your question. Please contact me if you need any
further clarification on this answer before you rate it.

Search terms: 
"martin guerre" "historical accuracy"
"martin guerre" "real story"
"martin guerre" 1548

Thankyou very much Politguru. I have had some difficulties of late and
have not been able to access the net but I think you would know that I
always get back to question evntually and attend to asessmnent of
answer and rating as well. YOu gave the correct answer , and gave some
interesting links as well so have to rate you accordingly and once
again sorry for the delay. Thanks also to Bryan of course; its his
birthday you know!!

Martin Guerre.

Actually 'The Return of ...'

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084589/

Oops, John ...

Not until Friday 22nd ...

But many thanks for (almost) remembering.

All the Best

Bryan