Le Rosier de Madame Husson (1950) - film review

Madame Husson, a local dignitary of a French rural community, has created a special prize to of 100 thousand francs, to be awarded to the most virtuous young woman in the neighbourhood.  Unfortunately, the panel of ageing women who have been tasked with making the selection are unable to find a single young woman who is sufficiently worthy to win the prize.  They decide instead to award the prize to Isadore, a young man who, through the fault of his domineering mother, is afraid of all young women.  The new honour turns Isadore’s head and gives him the self-confidence he needs to break away from his mother’s influence, with unexpected consequences...

Le Rosier de Madame Husson is an engaging comic farce based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant.  The setting, characters and dialogue are typical creations of Marcel Pagnol, one of French cinema’s greatest writers, and the film captures the charm of life in a rural Provençal community, principally through the well-rounded characters which bring the story to life.

The film features some genuinely eccentric performances, which is probably the thing which makes the film so memorable.  Although the film’s plot is lacking in content, the comedy is so enchanting that this is scarcely noticeable.  Indeed, a more complex plot would probably have robbed the film of its pleasing simplicity and charm.

The star of the film is Bourvil, a great comic actor  who clearly relishes in his part of the naïve country bumpkin, a close relative of the stage character that brought him celebrity in the mid 1940s.  Bourvil’s childlike sense of fun is rarely as apparent and as entertaining as in this film – the part of Isadore could easily have been written for him.

The film is a re-make of an earlier film (1931) of the same name, directed by Bernard-Deschamps and starring Fernandel.

© James Travers 2001

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