Le Bled (1929) - film review

On a streamer bound for Algeria, Pierre Hofer meets and is enchanted by the beautiful Claudie Duvernet, who is travelling to Algeria to collect her vast inheritance. Claudie is being pursued by some unscrupulous relatives, including the cruel Manuel, who intend to rob her of her new-found fortune.  Fortunately, Pierre is on hand to thwart their schemes...

Jean Renoir’s final silent film is this rather ordinary but nonetheless watchable mix of melodrama and comedy, which reflects the French cinema-going appetite at the time for comforting dramas in exotic colonial settings.   The film was commissioned by the French government to commemorate the centenary of France’s conquest of Algeria in 1830, and this explains why the film sometimes feels like a rather laboured and overly patriotic homage to the Algerian settlers.

© James Travers 2002

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