La Table aux crevés (1952) - film review

Urbain Coindet returns to his farmhouse one day to find his wife hanging from the ceiling.  His in-laws reject the most plausible explanation, that the sad woman killed herself, and instead spread the rumour that Urbain murdered her.  Urbain doesn’t help matters by immediately starting a romance with a young woman, Jeanne, whose brother has an intense hatred for him.  Before long, the entire village is divided into two camps, those who are for Urbain and those who are against him...

Having made a number of short films in the 1940s, Henri Verneuil began his film-making career proper in 1951 with this, his first full-length film, adapted from a novel by Marcel Aymé.  The film stars the iconic comic actor Fernandel, who had appeared in Verneuil’s earlier short film Escale au soleil (1947).  The two men – both major players in French cinema for many years – would work together again over the following decade in another six films, all popular successes.   With its sunny provençal location, authentic characterisation of country folk and poetic cinematographic style, La Table aux crevés is reminiscent of the films of Marcel Pagnol, with which Fernandel is himself closely associated.

© James Travers 2003

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