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Monsieur Ripois
1954 Comedy / Drama / Romance
Review
The Italian neo-realist influence that is so evident in René
Clément’s Oscar-winning 1949 film Au-delà
des grilles is also felt in this quirky romantic comedy,
through its use of real locations (mostly in the bustling centre of
London) and fluid, documentary-style photography. Along with some
of his contemporaries (notably Georges Franju and Jean-Pierre Melville)
René Clément had started to trail-blaze a new kind of
cinema, departing from the conventions of the quality tradition that
had grown stale and predictable by the early 1950s, and laying the
groundwork for the French New Wave. If you did not know that
Clément had directed Monsieur
Ripois, you might easily mistake it for an early offering from
one of the Nouvelle Vague filmmakers – Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer,
Jacques Rivette, Louis Malle or François Truffaut.Monsieur Ripois was a rare Anglo-French production, filmed at Elstree studios and various locations in and around London. Its cast includes several notable British actors (Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood) – all of whom speak remarkably good French. The film afforded Gérard Philipe, then one of France’s leading stage and film actors, one of his finest screen roles, that of the sympathetic philanderer André Ripois. There is a modernity and realism to Philipe’s performance which adds to the film’s striking New Wave feel; such is the spontaneity and energy he brings to the film that you could swear he was improvising much of his dialogue, adopting a style of acting (expressively naturalistic) that was rare in cinema at the time but which would become de rigueur in French cinema within a decade, particularly amongst the New Wave filmmakers. Philipe himself considered this his best role – it is certainly one of his most entertaining and memorable. Monsieur Ripois is just one of the many films made by René Clément that earned the director widespread critical acclaim and added to his virtually unmatched collection of prestige awards. Having won the Best Director award at Cannes for La Bataille du rail (1946) and Au-delà des grilles (1949), Clément picked up the Jury Special Prize for this film (as well as a nomination for the Grand Prize) at the same festival in 1954. Made between two of Clément’s best films, Jeux interdits (1952) and Gervaise (1956), Monsieur Ripois is all too easily overlooked but deserves to be considered one of his major achievements, if only because it so evidently presages the revolution in filmmaking technique and style that was just around the corner. © filmsdefrance.com 2009 Write a review for this film...User Comments
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Director:
René Clément
Starring: Gérard Philipe, Natasha Parry, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood, Margaret Johnston Synopsis
André Ripois is a young Frenchman who cannot help seducing
attractive English women. He is drawn to them like a moth to the
flame, the victim of a fatal attraction that will doubtless be his
downfall one day. Tired of her husband’s endless infidelities,
Catherine Ripois finally decides to divorce him, but even as she
prepares to make this move André has embarked on his next
amorous conquest, Catherine’s best friend Patricia. To win
Patricia’s sympathy, André tells her the story of his complex
love life. Shortly after his arrival in London some years ago,
whilst engaged as a humble desk clerk, he began an affair with his
office manager, Anne. When the latter discovered that her lover
had begun a romantic idyll with another woman, André soon found
himself jobless, penniless and homeless. A kind prostitute,
Marcelle, came to his rescue, but when she inherited a fortune,
André decided to leave her and set himself up as a private
tutor. This was how he came to meet Catherine, a wealthy woman
who was instantly won over by his charms. It should have been a
marriage made in Heaven, but it was not long before André’s
roving eye and wandering heart soon began to look elsewhere for that
elusive romantic bliss...
Credits
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© filmsdefrance.com 2009