Film Review
Immediately after
Boudu sauvé des eaux
(1932), Jean Renoir accepted a commission from Roger Ferdinand to film
a screen adaptation of his play
Chotard
et Cie. One of Renoir's most boisterous comedies, the film
was a continuation of the theme of acceptance and rejection of
bourgeois order that had run through much of the director's previous
films and culminated in his adaptation of
Madame
Bovary (1933). With its humorous portrayal of
Provençal life,
Chotard et Cie
feels more typical of Marcel Pagnol than Renoir and is a film that is
easily overlooked (even Renoir himself forgot he had made it in later
years). Renoir's penchant for experimentation is apparent in his confident use
of long tracking shots, such as the one that opens the film and slowly draws us
into its protagonist's busy world. For a film of this era, the
camera is surprising mobile, and this gives it a dynamism that brings to life
a somewhat lacklustre play.
Although cheaply made and lacking Renoir's inspired touch, the film is
an amiable satire that mocks, with an acid wit, the pretensions of both
the nouveaux riches and artistically minded. Charpin (an actor
beloved by Pagnol and a frequent habitué of his films) is at his
comedic best, revelling in the role of a philistinic snob who is
clearly meant to be updated version of Molière's
Bourgeois Gentilhomme. The
order that Charpin's character represents (founded on honest commerce
and hard work) is threatened when the opportunity of easy social
advancement presents itself, via a prize-winning future
son-in-law. The chaos that ensues is reversed when the gifted
writer exchanges art for commerce and opts for trading apples and potatoes
rather than plundering his imagination in bleak solitude. "It
takes all sorts to make a world" is the film's wise summation, although
Renoir's obvious lack of engagement with his subject prevents it from
having the punch it merits.
© James Travers 2014
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Next Jean Renoir film:
La Nuit du carrefour (1932)
Film Synopsis
François Chotard runs a successful grocery business in a small
village in the south of France. His daughter Reine has two
suitors - a young police officer and daydreaming poet named Julien
Collinet - but Chotard is holding out for a more suitable
son-in-law. Finally, the grocer yields and gives his consent for
his daughter to marry the poet, but only after he has proven his worth
by working for him in the family business. Alas, Julien has no
head for business and does his best to ruin his prospective
father-in-law. Exasperated, Chotard drives Julien away and gives
his rival a chance to claim his daughter's hand in marriage. A
short while later, Julien's stock suddenly increases in value when
Chotard learns that he has won the Prix Goncourt, France's highest
literary award. Seizing at once an opportunity to improve his
standing in the community, Chotard neglects his business and coerces
Julien into writing ten novels a year. Unable to work under such
conditions, the poet rebels and takes charge of the grocer's business.
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.