Gribouille (1937) - film review

One day, Camille Morestan, owner of a bicycle shop, finds himself juryman in the trial of a young woman, Nathalie, who is accused of murdering her lover.  Moved by Nathalie’s story, Camille manages to convince his fellow jurymen of her innocence and she is acquitted.   With nowhere to go, Nathalie accepts Camille’s kind offer of a room in his house and a job in his shop.  Only Camille’s son, Claude, knows that Nathalie was tried for murder, but he falls madly in love with her.   Meanwhile, one of the jurymen continues to harangue Camille, insisting that Nathalie is a bad woman with a dangerous past.  Is history about to repeat itself…?

This atmospheric drama from director Marc Allégret effectively marked the start of a distinguished film career for actress Michèle Morgan.  Here, the 17 year-old actress stars alongside that giant of stage and screen, Raimu, an actor who is renowned for playing complex yet down-to-earth characters with conviction and great emotional intensity.  The on-screen rapport between the two actors is the most striking thing about this film, conveying, on the surface a father-daughter tenderness, yet subtly hinting at something much darker, much more destructive.

The film’s use of light and shade and cluttered sets evokes a sense of morbid claustrophobia and mounting paranoia, propelling us inexorably towards the film’s shocking climax.  The lengthy trial sequence at the start of the film is admittedly a turn off, but this is more than made up for by what follows.

"Gribouille" is a slang term for someone (such as the central character in this film) who has a tendency for getting into a muddle and ends up running head first towards disaster to avoid a minor difficulty.  (In most countries, such people are known as "politicians".)

In 1940, the film was remade in Hollywood as The Lady in Question, directed by Charles Vidor, and starring Brian Aherne and Rita Hayworth.

© James Travers 2006

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