Candide ou l'optimisme au XXe siècle (1960)
Directed by Norbert Carbonnaux

Film Review

The depressing timelessness of Volitaire's 1759 satire Candide, ou l'Optimisme is demonstrated by the ease with which director Norbert Carbonnaux transposes it to the 20th century in this, his most celebrated film.  To prove that all is definitely not for the best, in the far from best of all worlds, Carbonnaux plunges Voltaire's hero into a series of madcap adventures (from WWII onwards) which make light of mankind's unerring penchant for cruelty and self-destruction.  The tone may be breezy and light-hearted, but, like Voltaire's novel, there is a vicious satirical edge to the film.  The abject failure of humanity to create a better world is palpably rendered via a manic whistle-stop tour of just some of the countless atrocities that man has inflicted on himself since 1939. Carbonnaux directed another (less well-known) Voltaire adaptation, L'Ingénu (1972) - the rest of his oeuvre consists of fairly uninspired comedies such as Les Corsaires du Bois de Boulogne (1954) and Courte tête (1956).

For its time, Candide ou l'optimisme au XXe siècle was a daring and controversial film, not least because France was, at the time of its release, entrenched in a bitter war with Algeria.  Not content with spitting on the lunatic misadventures of World War II, the chaotic narrative sprawls into present-day idiocy, poking fun at both the Arms Race and racial intolerance in the United States.  Now that the satirists' instruments have been blunted by that bane of modern life, political correctness, it is virtually inconceivable that such a film could be made today - superficially naive, yet piercingly perceptive as it is not in the least bit afraid of causing offence.  Satire may still be alive and kicking today, but it looks pretty pallid and sickly compared with the merciless topical Mickey-taking of the 1960s.

Jean-Pierre Cassel's habitual air of geniality and insouciance makes him perfect for the role of Voltaire's carefree innocent who can't help looking on the bright side, even when he is about to be served up as dish of the day to a bunch of hungry cannibals.  Like a newborn lamb casually skipping its way across a well-stocked minefield, Cassel hops from one incendiary situation to another, encountering no end of colourful rogues as he does so.  Louis de Funès crops up in a few scenes, first as a despicable Gestapo agent, then as a committed Gaullist - just one of the French comedy legends to lend their talents to this film.  From the incomparable double act formed by Jean Poiret and Michel Serrault, to the great Jacqueline Maillan and omnipresent Michel Simon, the comedy stalwarts fall thick and fast as the gag-laden express zips its way from one battle zone to another, occasionally hijacked by other scene-stealing personalities such as Luis Mariano and Pierre Brasseur.  Whatever qualities the film lacks, comic talent is definitely not one of them.

Candide ou l'optimisme au XXe siècle can be enjoyed as a galloping comic romp but it is clearly far more than just a frivolous piece of entertainment - it also offers some revealing insights into the French mindset of the early 1960s.  The time at which it was made was marked by a growing maturity amongst the electorate of western democracies.  Satire flourished because, rightly, political leaders were no longer trusted and became (by virtue of their naivety, stubbornness and ineptitude) easy scapegoats for all the failings in the world.  This burgeoning global disillusionment appears perfectly aligned with that of Voltaire's hero, a man who grows to realise that contentment can be found only when 'one learns to cultivate one's own garden'.  For a nation in the throes of post-colonial decline, failing in Algeria as it had failed in Indochina, this must have seemed like admirable advice.

Film Synopsis

Adopted by a wealthy baron, the orphaned Candide grows to accept the optimistic philosophy of his wise tutor, Dr Pangloss, that 'all is for the best in the best of all worlds'.  When he takes too keen an interest in the baron's daughter, Candide is unceremoniously ejected into the real world, where his philosophy is soon put to the test.  At the outbreak of World War II, he is conscripted into the French army and ends up in a German prison camp.  By changing his nationality, Candide becomes a German soldier and makes an easy escape across the Swiss border, where he is immediately arrested for not possessing a Swiss bank account.  Once liberated, he is pursued by an agent of the Gestapo, but saved by a mysterious young woman who helps him to escape to Buenos Aires.  Several South American revolutions later, Candide returns to France, just in time to be drafted into the war in Indochina...