Souvenirs d'en France (1975)
Directed by André Téchiné

Film Review

Téchiné's second film is a curious mix of black comedy, romantic drama and nostalgia, told in an unsettling inconsistent style.  The film begins as what appears to be a straightforward provincial romance in 1940s France and from there rapidly evolves into something quite different.  By tracing the lives of its characters through the period of Nazi occupation to the present day, it becomes a somewhat tongue-in-cheek view of societal changes in France, charting the demise of the self-made Bourgeoisie to the rise of the Trades Union shop steward.

The lives of the characters in the film quickly become the film's least important aspect - or they are seen simply as mere stepping stones between times past and present.  The focus of the film is the family-owned factory.  We see its birth, its maturing, and its decline, as if it were a living thing.  Around it, times change, the people change, social attitudes and hair-styles change, but the factory remains there, immutable and indifferent.

This is also quite a  good film for legendary French actress Jeanne Moreau.  Despite the fact that her character in the film scarcely seems to age over a 30 year period, she appears perfectly at ease with this style of drama and shows a surprising comic flair in some scenes.

Film Synopsis

In a small French provincial town of the 1930s, Pierre arrives at a factory owned by the wealthy businessman Pedret desperately in search of work.  The factory is closed owing to the fact that Pedret's son Prosper is getting married to the beautiful Régina.  Meanwhile, Pedret's other son Hector is having an affair with a lowly washerwoman, Berthe, to the distress of his mother Augustine.  Despite the latter's machinations, Berthe gets her way and succeeds in claiming Hector as her husband.  Whilst Régina begins to regret marrying into the Pedret family (and later goes off to the United States with an American soldier), Berthe soon grows accustomed to her new status and finds she has a friend in Pedret, a Spanish immigrant who made a success of his life through sheer hard work.  After war is declared, Pierre is called up to fight in the war against Germany, but once the armistice is signed he returns to his hometown and makes a conquest of Pierrette, one of Berthe's former washerwoman associates.  They marry and Pierre then goes off to serve in the French Resistance.  Berthe follows his example and is honoured as a war hero.  After Pedret's death, Berthe takes over the running of the factory, just as the economy takes a turn for the worse...