Merlusse (1935)

Merlusse is a French film comedy-drama first released in 1935, directed by Marcel Pagnol.  The film stars Henri Poupon, André Pollack, Thommeray, F. Bruno and Castagne.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


At a boarding school in Marseilles, a teacher, Merlusse, finds himself the constant target of practical jokes from his unruly pupils.  Undeterred, Merlusse perseveres with his out-dated teaching methods, but still the boys tease him, making fun of his unusual appearance.  Despite his outward severity, Merlusse reveals his true nature when he gives each of his boarders who cannot go home for Christmas a small present.  Touched by this act of generosity, the boys suddenly change their attitude towards Merlusse...

Merlusse was the first film to be made by Marcel Pagnol that he wrote especially for the screen.  All of Pagnol’s previous films had been adaptations, of either his stage plays or well-known novels.   A heart-warming tale that shows us the true meaning of Christmas, Merlusse differs markedly from most French-made dramas of the time, both in its austere presentation and in its almost total lack of sentimentality.  Most strikingly, it has a trenchant realism that comes from Pagnol’s decisions to employ non-professional actors for the child roles and to shoot the film on location at a real school in Marseilles.  The central character in the drama, the disfigured Merlusse, may have been partly based on Pagnol’s own father, who was a schoolmaster known for his selflessness and acts of kindness.

Marcel Pagnol’s cinema is most characterised by its naturalism and humanity, and Merlusse shows these qualities in abundance.  There are of course similarities with Jean Vigo’s Zéro de conduite (1932); both films convincingly depict the brutality of school life, as experienced by both pupils and teachers alike, in the 1930s.  But whereas Vigo’s film is fantastic, perhaps naive, in suggesting that revolution is needed to improve things, Pagnol’s is more reasonable, showing that simple gestures of kindness are enough to make a happier world.   Despite its technical imperfections (the sound quality is poor even for the standards of the time) Merlusse is an engaging film that, thanks to its warmth and simplicity, has a timeless appeal.

© James Travers 2010

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