La Fête à Henriette (1952) - film review

A script writer and a film director have decided on the characters for their next film but have yet to come up with an original plot.  As they bounce ideas off one another a storyline starts to emerge.  The heroine of the story is Henriette, a Parisian dressmaker who is engaged to Robert, a reporter.  At a ball, Robert has to abandon Henriette, having received a mysterious invitation from a female acquaintance, Rita Solar.  Henriette gets her own back by pairing up with Maurice, a small-time crook who persuades her to assist him in his next daring robbery...

Mainly on the strength of its script (an excellent collaborative effort from Henri Jeanson and Julien Duvivier), La Fête à Henriette is one of the most entertaining and insightful films about the process of film-making.  The idea has since been reused a number of times, most notably in Robert Guédiguian’s 2000 film À l’attaque!, but probably never as cleverly as in this French film classic.  Dany Robin and Michel Auclair make a strong lead couple, clearly relishing their stereotypical comedic roles and bringing a great deal of cohesion to what might perhaps have ended up as an unsatisfactorily fragmented film.

© James Travers 2003

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