L’Âge ingrat (1964) - film review

Two students, Antoine and Marie, decide that their families should get to know one another before they get married.  Antoine invites Marie’s family, who live in Normandy, to come and stay with his family for a while at their home in the South of France.  Things start badly when the two fathers, Emile and Adolphe, fail to hit it off, and only get worse when Antoine and Marie have a lover’s row...

This film boasts not one but two icons of French cinema – Jean Gabin and Fernandel.  They had previously appeared together in three films in the 1930s before each went on to forge his own path to stardom.  In 1963, they came together to found their own film production company, Gafer – the name deriving from the first letters of their stage names – whose first film was L’Âge ingrat . Gabin and Fernandel would make a further 8 films for Gafer, but never appearing on screen together.

L’Âge ingrat was directed by Gilles Grangier, who was renowned at the time in France for his popular film comedies which featured big name actors.  Whilst the French New Wave was making its mark, traditional directors such as Grangier continued to churn out uninspired fare such as this, feeding the popular demand for unchallenging cinema without offering much in the way of artistic flair or imagination.   Whilst L’Âge ingrat has a certain charm, with one or two amusing comic interludes, it’s overall pretty dull and anaemic, with neither Gabin nor Fernandel at anything like his best.

© James Travers 2002

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