Le Briseur de chaînes (1941)
Directed by Jacques Daniel-Norman

Film Review

Separated from the historical context in which it was made and first seen, Le Briseur de chaînes is a film that has very little interest either to film historians or French film enthusiasts in general.  A staid rural melodrama, of the kind that was hugely popular with French cinema audiences throughout most of the 1930s and 40s, it has little to distinguish it on either the writing or directing fronts, and even though it boasts an extraordinary cast, the performances are not much to write home about, mostly bland and theatrical.  Only Marcelle Géniat, a formidable sixty-year old character actress made up to look like a doyenne of 106 years, grabs our attention; the rest of the cast are merely going through the motions (or else are totally eclipsed by Géniat's larger-than-life personality).  Pierre Fresnay, Blanchette Brunoy, Ginette Leclerc, Georges Rollin, Charles Dullin... - you wonder why they bothered showing up for work.

Le Briseur de chaînes is lacklustre to a fault but it does have one important claim to fame, and it is this which has prevented it from so far tumbling into the pit of obscurity.  It is one of the few films released during the Nazi Occupation of France that is overtly anti-Vichy and anti-Pétain, in both its tone and content.  Compare it with Pierre de Hérain's Monsieur des Lourdines (1943), as blatant a Pétainist propaganda piece as ever there was, and it is impossible not to read a subversive message into the film, one that preaches individualism and personal fulfilment over loyalty to one's family and motherland.  It is the very antithesis of the philosophy of Maréchal Pétain, which is succinctly summed up in the slogal of the Vichy government: Travaille, famille, patrie.  Even the film's title is provocative, and the most bizarre thing of all is that this was imposed on the film by the censor, having rejected the original title Mamouret, after the play by Jean Sarment on which the film was based.  Virtually every other film by director Jacques Daniel-Norman has been forgotten (or deserves to be forgotten).  This one can justify its place in posterity by virtue of its sheer bravado, ponderous and insipid as the film unfortunately is.

Film Synopsis

The Mourets appear to be a happily united family, living a tranquil self-sufficient existence in Saint-Viaud.  The head of the household is an old woman known as Mamouret.  Although she never married, she has two children, the seventy-year-old fool, Esprit, and the redoubtable old maid, Estelle.  To celebrate her 106th birthday, Mamouret plans to hold a banquet at the inn, le Mouton Blanc, which is owned by her grandson, Antoine Mouret.  The latter is taking care of the family's future by organising three weddings: one for his son Guillaume with the pretty Marie-Josèphe, an orphan adopted by the family; one for his daughter Estelle with Laurent, a handsome and carefree young man; and one for his two cousins Léonard and Gisèle.  This arrangement displeases Mamouret, who is bitterly adamant that she has spoiled her life by staying in the village instead of thinking of her own happiness.  The old woman has her chance to shock the entire family when a circus turns up in Saint-Viaud...