Film Review
Taxes and comedy are not the most obvious of bedfellows but, in their
popular pre-WWII stage play
L'École
des contribuables, Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil showed that
there is much mirth to be found even in the supposedly joke-free
pasture of income tax returns and tax avoidance. The 1930s film
adaptation of their play is that rare thing: a snappy French comedy
that is as funny and as relevant today as it was when it was first
screened, perhaps not surprisingly given that taxes are, along with
death and double-glazing salesmen, the one immutable fact of human
existence. Unlike most French film comedies of this era, which
are by and large pretty anaemic museum pieces, this one still holds up
remarkably well and will come as a surprisingly enjoyable find to any
aficionado of 1930s French cinema.
The film was directed by René Guissart, who had had a pretty
impressive career as a cinematographer before he began directing his
own films in the early 1930s. Guissart started his long career in
the United States during WWI and worked on several notable films,
including the silent version of
Ben-Hur
(1925) and Maurice Tourneur's early near-masterpiece
While Paris Sleeps (1923).
Guissart's subsequent work in France as a film director was less
distinguished, although films like
L'École
des contribuables show that he had a natural flair for comedy
and perhaps deserves to be better remembered than he is.
Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil's witty play is extremely well-served
in this screen adaptation by a well-formed ensemble of larger-than-life
comedic performers. Leading the pack is the magnificent Armand
Bernard, one of the most popular comic actors of his day - a man who
looks uncannily like a hybrid of Bourvil and Harold Lloyd, in both his
appearance and his charm. Bernard is superb in this film and
(unlike his famous contemporary Fernandel) does not rely on his star
persona but turns in a pretty respectable character performance which
helps to anchor the film in reality and prevent it from being just
another frivolous comedy. It is fitting that he gets the funniest
line: "Quel con...tribuable!" Sharing the comedy burden are some other
notable performers: Paul Pauley (a comedy heavyweight who is hilarious
as the over-zealous government taxman), Pierre Larquey (one of the
great French character actors of the decade) and Mireille Perrey (a
charismatic young actress with a long and busy career ahead of
her). With such a talented, well-balanced cast, the film could
hardly fail to make the best of Berr and Verneuil's play.
L'École des contribuables is
a slick melange of satire and farce that cheered audiences in the
depression gloom of the early 1930s and has much the same effect today,
and it will most likely bring a smile to your face the next time you
are minded to fill in that dreaded tax return...
© James Travers 2011
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next René Guissart film:
Prince de minuit (1935)
Film Synopsis
Gaston Valtier is an idler who is more than content to live the life of
a man of leisure than work for his living, if only to avoid having to
pay income tax. His father-in-law, Émile Fromentel, is a
government tax inspector who, naturally, regards Gaston's lifestyle
with utter contempt. Not only does Gaston not keep his wife
Juliette in the manner to which she deserves to get accustomed, but he
is depriving the state of a valuable source of revenue, through the
taxes he would pay if he had a well-paid job. Gaston is
shaken out of his happy state of indolence when he learns that his wife
may be receiving amorous advances from another man. How else can
he account for the 15,000 franc cheque in her handbag? Without a
moment's delay, Gaston creates his own company, which, to his
father-in-law's horror, will advise tax payers how to minimise their tax
liability by exploiting every possible loophole in the system. In
no time at all, Gaston becomes a very wealthy man, but in doing so he
risks losing the one thing he cherishes most, his wife...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.