Allo Berlin? Ici Paris! (1932) - film review

Lily is in love, but with a man she has never seen.  She and Erich both work as switchboard operators, she in Paris, he in Berlin.  They talk to each other every day and now they are hopelessly in love.  Finally, they decide to meet up in Paris.  Lily has a photograph of Erich and so is surprised when the man who meets her at the station looks nothing like the man she had been expecting.  Not realising that the man is an impostor, Lily allows herself to be courted by him.  Meanwhile, Erich has mistaken another woman, Annette, for Lily, and ends up seeing far more than he expected to on a first date.  The weekend adventure over, Lily and Erich return to their humdrum lives, only to be dismissed by their employers for their unorthodox method of cementing Franco-German relations over the phone.  Just when all seems lost, Fate conspires to bring the two young lovers together...

Allo Berlin? Ici Paris! marked a rare departure from the norm for Julien Duvivier, in terms of both style and subject.  One of the director’s few comedies, the film has more in common with the work of Duvivier’s contemporary René Clair, with its abundance of visual gags, anti-authoritarian stance and inspired stylistic flourishes.  Unlike Clair, Duvivier was not known for wild experimentation with technique, even though he was the consummate craftsman and had a flair for turning out great works of cinema at a prodigious rate.

This film shows a side to Duvivier – a lighter, more romantic, even anarchic side – which those familiar with his other work will find surprising.  The director’s more cynical view of human nature does surface occasionally, sounding the occasional discordant note that threatens to turn comedy into tragedy, but in the end bonhomie prevails and the audience is spared the kind of Titus Andronicus-style denouement which Duvivier seemed to prefer.  Although somewhat dated and far less polished than Duvivier’s other films, Allo Berlin? Ici Paris! is well worth seeing, if only to get a fresh perspective on one of the true masters of French cinema.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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