Film Review
Jean Dréville was a film director who often used striking
natural locations to give a sense of scale and drama to his films, as
well as to define the tone and reflect the personality of the
protagonists. This is certainly noticeable in his rural melodrama
Les Roquevillard (1943) and the
spectacular cross-mountain wartime exploit
La Bataille de l'eau lourde
(1948), but
La Fille au fouet,
one of his lesser known films, also shares this characteristic.
In this visually compelling adaptation of a novel by the famous Swiss
author Ernst Zahn, the stunning mountain landscape on the Swiss-Italian
border reflects the wild and pure nature of its androgynous
protagonist, admirably played by Véronique Deschamps in what is
probably the best role of her career. En passant, it is worth
mentioning that Jean Dréville also made a German language
version of the same film, titled
Das
Geheimnis vom Bergsee (1952), with a different cast.
La Fille au fouet's main
achievement is the captivating beauty of its photography - particularly
the location exteriors, from which the film derives most of its raw and
intense poetry. Here Dréville was well-served by the great
cinematographer Marc Fossard, who performed miracles on many a French
film, including Julien Duvivier's
Pépé le Moko
(1937). The stark lyricism of the visuals is sustained throughout
the length of the film and helps to mask the many deficiencies of a far
from perfect screenplay. It is to be regretted that the
characters are poorly developed, most looking like vague archetypes,
and that the uglier facets of melodrama are glimpsed so
frequently. The dramatic denouement which sees Deschamps
selflessly battling the elements to save her community is
preposterously melodramatic and feels painfully like a hangover from
the silent era - indeed, you can't help wondering if the film would
have had much greater impact if it had been a silent film.
Michel Simon, Gaby Morlay and Colette Darfeuil were the three big
hitters intended to draw the crowds, although Simon is completely
wasted in a thankless role and Morlay has nothing more to do than play
the 'soap queen' yet again. Rent-a-vamp Darfeuil at least makes
something of her caricatured 'bad girl' role, the scene in which she is
whipped by Deschamps being the one Sadean episode the film admits (a
disappointment no doubt for those expecting something more from a film
titled
Girl With the Whip).
Michel Barbey was clearly cast more for his rugged good looks than his
acting ability, but he more than serves the role required of him, which
is to make Deschamps appear butch, heroic and resourceful. Some
tasteful eroticism (justified by the need to prove that Deschamps is
indeed of the female gender) confers a welcome touch of modernity on
the film, making up for the creaking storyline and some ghastly
attempts at tear-jerking.
© James Travers 2015
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Next Jean Dréville film:
Les Sept péchés capitaux (1952)
Film Synopsis
Pietro Pons lives a happy life in the mountains on the Swiss-Italian
border with his mother Lamberta. No one but his mother knows that
Pietro is a girl, a deception that Lamberta was forced into by a series
of tragedies almost twenty years previously. Not long after her
husband Joseph Pons died, Lamberta also lost her fragile infant son,
Pietro. Whilst mourning this double loss, she began an affair
with Bolzano, a notorious smuggler. After Bolzano was killed by
the customs men, Lamberta gave birth to his child, a little girl that
she decided to pass off as her son Pietro, in the hope of securing an
inheritance from her husband's wealthy parents. Now that Pietro
is fast coming of age, his tutor and grandmother are adamant that he
should be sent to a religious school. Pietro escapes from the
school and joins a gang of smugglers. As the customs men pursue
the gang across the mountains, a young man named Calixe comes to
Pietro's rescue. Pietro in turn saves Calixes's life when his
jealous girlfriend Lauretta shoots him in the back. When a
violent rainstorm breaks, a far greater threat imperils the whole
region, and it is left to Pietro to save the day...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.