Summary
Honorin is the timid stage manager of the Théâtre Cascaroni, which is currently
rehearsing a production of “François 1er ou les amours de la Belle Ferronnière
”. Honorin’s dream of playing the title role comes true when the current lead
actor falls ill. However, Honorin is afflicted with a terrible stage fright, and
so he turns to a friend, the fortune teller and mystic Cagliostro. Under deep
hypnosis, Honorin awakes to find himself in the 16th Century, at the court of the real
François I. Luckily, he is carrying an encyclopaedia, so he is able to familiarise
himself with the period, and also to make some predictions which earn him praise and honours
at the court. But, by agreeing to save the honour of the King’s mistress, he makes
a mortal enemy in her husband, the villainous Jean Ferron...
Review
The most famous, and probably the best, of the six comic films which Fernandel made with
the director Christian-Jaque, François Premier is of interest today mainly for
its ruthless parodying of the starchy historic dramas which were very much in vogue when
the film was made. Such films tended to slip up with unintentional anachronisms
– François Premier does this deliberately, most famously in the ball scene where
medieval courtiers dance cheek-to-cheek to the fox trot and other contemporary tunes.
At the time of its release in the mid-1930s, Fernandel was at the height of his popularity,
and it is probably the unbridled comedy which made the film so popular, not just in France,
but throughout the world: the film was an international success. Today, the
comedy is probably not the film's best element, some of the jokes have not aged well and
some of the slapstick appears too contrived and unsophisticated. Christian-Jaque’s tongue-in-cheek
direction, which combines the comic and the frightening realistic, is of much greater
interest. That said, Fernandel is undoubtedly the film’s focal point, bringing a
unique and completely inimitable brand of comedy, perfectly in keeping with Christian-Jaque’s
intentions.
Christian-Jaque and Fernandel envisaged attempting a re-make of this film in the 1960s,
but nothing came of this. A re-make of a sorts came along in the early 1990s, with
the box-office hit Les Visiteurs, which is essentially François 1er in
reverse.
© James Travers 2001
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