Film Review
Au Bonheur des dames was one
of the most lavish productions made by the German-run company
Continental Films at the time of the
Nazi Occupation of France.
Based on the eleventh novel in
Émile Zola's
Rougon-Macquart
saga, the film almost totally subverts Zola's original intention and
offers a shameless endorsement of Pétainism at its most
basic. Despite its obvious political subtext (which earned it
some unfavourable criticism during and after the Occupation), the film
is technically flawless and arguably the most visually impressive film
made by Continental. The scale of the sets and attention to
detail are remarkable for a film of this era, providing the grandest
and most authentic portrait of Second Empire France. Whilst the
film is generally less well-regarded than an
earlier silent adaptation
directed by Julien Duvivier in 1930, it deserves to be considered one
of the great classics of 1940s French cinema.
The film was directed by former lawyer André Cayatte, the second
of three films he made for Continental, the others being the comedy
La Fausse maîtresse (1942)
and
Pierre et Jean (1943), based on
a Guy de Maupassant novella. Although this was only Cayatte's
second film, he shows considerable flair and manages to extract the
maximum dramatic impact from each scene - a case in point being the
final confrontation between Baudu and his rival Mouret. Like
Zola, Cayatte's art is heavily informed by the artist's social
conscience, and in much of his subsequent work Cayatte would lend his
voice to several important social themes, particularly failings in
France's judicial system.
Au
bonheur des dames may not be as outspoken in its condemnation of
societal ills as the director's later work, but it is an effective,
indeed prescient, commentary on the power of big business to take over
our lives and impose its standards on us all in the pursuit of
mega-profits.
It is Baudu, the unfortunate but doomed solitary
shopkeeper (magnificently played by Michel
Simon) that we identify with, not the faceless monolith of a department store that drives him
to ruin.
Today, the film's title seems highly ironic (particularly if you are a
feminist), but what is more chilling is its boldly pro-Pétainist
ending, in which the workers' resistance and individuality are finally
overcome by a seemingly benign dictator (Albert Préjean at his
smoothest). It is as if the Au Bonheur des Dames department store
sees itself as the absolute embodiment of the Pétainist/Nazi
dream - a society in which everyone knows his place and knuckles down
to his job, without dissension and complaint. The poor are happy
to become marionettes, selflessly serving the preening bourgeoisie,
and no one is remotely preoccupied with the crime of class
segregation. It is a Fascist Utopia in which the less privileged
are conditioned to be content with being exploited by their rich
masters. Seventy years on, far from appearing dated, the film
feels horribly pertinent. The setting may be Zola's Paris of the
1860s, but the social reality it presents is pretty much what we find
in our own time. Today, our freedoms and individuality are
threatened not by Nazis or any other misguided political ideology, but by a
force that is far more potent and destructive, corporate greed.
© James Travers 2012
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next André Cayatte film:
Pierre et Jean (1943)
Film Synopsis
Paris, 1860. Baudu, an ageing shopkeeper, is none too pleased
when a new department store named Au Bonheur des Dames opens on his
doorstep and starts poaching his clientele. In a desperate
attempt to save his business, he drops his prices, but he merely drives
himself further into debt. Despite his straitened circumstances,
Baudu is hospitable to his niece and nephews who turn up unexpectedly,
looking for a place to stay after the death of their father.
Baudu is, however, appalled when his niece, Denise, finds works as a
sales assistant at the rival store. Octave Mouret, the store's
ambitious owner, takes an instant liking to Denise, much to the
annoyance of his mistress, Madame Desforges. In an attempt to win
back Mouret, Madame Desforges cons Baudu into giving away his shop to
her, in return for a loan to pay off his present debts. Ruined,
Baudu suffers a second calamity when his daughter dies after the man
she has fallen for rejects her. Meanwhile, Mouret continues to
plan the expansion of his empire...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.