Crésus (1960) - film review

Jules is a shepherd who lives a humble and solitary life in rural Provence.  From time to time, he is visited by a lonely widow, Fine, who longs to be his wife.  One day, Jules comes across an unexploded bomb lying on the ground in open countryside.  After a few foolhardy attempts to set the bomb off, Jules makes a surprising discovery.  It is filled with thousands of bank notes…

Jean Giono is one of France’s most respected writers, famous for his enduring descriptions of Provence life.  Many of his novels have been adapted for cinema – most successfully by Marcel Pagnol.  Crésus was Giono’s first and only attempt to direct a film – a simple, unambitious film which appears to have fallen through a time warp from the 1930s.  The naïve cinematic style and leisurely narrative pace is reminiscent of Marcel Pagnol’s early films (except that it is in widescreen format, an unusual choice for a black-and-white film).

Like Pagnol, Giono succeeds in capturing the wonder and scale of the Provence setting, and his depiction of the characters who live in this bleak paradise is convincing.  A few tedious joke-milking sequences do weaken the charm of the piece and you do sometimes regret that the film was not made in colour.

Late in his career, Fernandel turns in one of his most endearing performances as the tragicomic shepherd Jules.  His flair for comedy is evident as ever (and the film does have some very funny moments), but he also manages to bring genuine poignancy and a rough-edged realism to his part.  There is also the nostalgic satisfaction of seeing Fernandel make a belated return to Jean Giono’s universe – early in his career he starred in Pagnol’s sublime adaptations of Angèle (1934) and Regain (1937).


© James Travers 2005

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