Film Review
In the early part of Julien Duvivier's filmmaking career,
Le Mariage de
mademoiselle Beulemans is fairly unique - the only pure comedy he lent
his talents to during a prolific decade in which he seemed to be far more
concerned with systematically working his way through every genre and style
of film than settling down into his own particular niche. Duvivier
flirted with humour in a few of his early films - most notably
Le Mystère de la
Tour Eiffel (1928) - but it wasn't until the 1950s that he showed
any particular aptitude for comedy. Indeed it was in the domain of
mainstream comedy that the director had some of his biggest commercial successes
- his Fernandel collaborations
Le Petit monde de Don
Camillo (1952),
Le Retour de don Camillo (1953) and
L'Homme à l'imperméable
(1957). For the most part, however, comedy occupies an almost insignificant
part of Duvivier's oeuvre, which is dominated by his sombre dramas that were
more in tune with his generally pessimistic view of human nature.
Le Mariage de mademoiselle Beulemans is so unlike a Julien Duvivier
film that you could easily swear that it was helmed by any other French director
of the period apart from Duvivier. Having the same satirical punch
and feisty exuberance as
Un chapeau de paille d'Italie
(1928), the film has much more in common with the work of the director's
more versatile (and at the time far more highly regarded) rival René
Clair. In a decade in which Duvivier's interests ranged from conventional
melodrama and criminal intrigue to realist drama and religious subjects,
Le Mariage de mademoiselle Beulemans is a glaring outlier, and on
this basis you might expect it to be a far lesser work. In fact, of
the silent films that Duvivier made, this is one of his most consistently
entertaining and technically accomplished - a delightful comedy of manners
that has aged far better than most of his other 1920s screen offerings.
This was the second film that Duvivier directed for the successful producers
Marcel Vandal and Charles Delac, who had taken over the running of the illustrious
production company Film d'Art in 1911. Over the course of nine years,
the director made eleven films for Vandal and Delac, including his first
major box office hit,
David Golder (1930) and a well-regarded Georges
Simenon adaptation,
La Tête
d'un homme (1933). It was through this remarkably fruitful
association that Duvivier came to such high prominence in the early 1930s.
Le Mariage de mademoiselle Beulemans was based on an enormously popular
stage play of the same title from the Belgian playwrights Jean-François
Fonson and Fernand Wicheler. From its first production at the Théâtre
de l'Olympia in Brussels in March 1920, the play was a smash hit and was
frequently staged in both Belgium and France for many years to come.
Indeed, it remains popular to this day and is considered an important part
of Belgian culture. Marcel Pagnol claimed that he was inspired by the
play to write his famous
Marseille Trilogy,
a series of three plays which he subsequently adapted for the cinema in the
1930s, thereby launching his own impressive career as a filmmaker.
After Duvivier, the play had two other big screen adaptations - one by Jean
Choux in 1932, another by André Cerf in 1950. It has also been
adapted for television many times.
Duvivier's film version of
Le Mariage de mademoiselle Beulemans is
unquestionably the best so far, and this is down mainly to the quality of
the cast, with an ensemble expertly chosen to derive the maximum comic impact
from the familiar source material. As the rival brewers, Gustave Libeau
and Marcel Barencey give most entertainment value - two supposedly unassailable
pillars of society prone to schoolboy tantrums when the slightest thing offends
them. The monumental snobbery of both characters provides a rich vein
of humour, particularly as both men are nothing but jumped up fools with
far too high an opinion of themselves. Meulemeester's nouveau riche
posturing is bad enough, but more humour is to be found in Beulemans' obvious
lack of refinement and education, evidenced by his unfortunate habit of taking
everything too literally and his tragic susceptibility to malapropism.
As Beulemans' well-meaning daughter Suzanne, Andrée Brabant shows
no less comedic flair in her attempts to build bridges between the various
warring factions that keep springing up in the course of the narrative.
Most hilarious is the scene in which she is caught between her bickering
parents, looking like a beleaguered referee as the camera whip-pans back
and forth between the Beulemans as they snap at each other like battling
rottweilers. The slanging match ends with Monsieur Beulemans going
off in a huff, his intention being to spend the rest of his days in quiet
contemplation on the top of a mountain like a monk. Mountains being
in somewhat short supply in Brussels, the brewer has to settle for the next
best thing - a cramped sanctuary on top of a huge stack of beer barrels.
Jean Dehelly has the genial face and persona that would be a credit to any
Hollywood musical comedy of the 1930s, and so his amiable presence as Suzanne's
Parisian beau - the only male character in the film who is not an overt grotesque
or comicbook caricature - is welcome. René Lefèvre, the
one member of the cast to achieve greater success in cinema after the transition
to sound (
Le Million,
Le Crime de Monsieur Lange,
Gueule d'amour), is clearly
wasted in the role of Séraphím, the archetypal cad who undergoes
a not terribly convincing conversion to decency once the responsibilities
of fatherhood have sunk in. Lefèvre has too inoffensive a personality
ever to cut any mustard as the stereotypical bounder - even with the help
of comical facial adornments on his upper lip.
Given the subject matter, Julien Duvivier could have been forgiven for sticking
to the cinematic norms of the day, avoiding the stylistic flourishes and
optical trickery he frequently indulged in on his earlier silent films.
For the most part,
Le Mariage de mademoiselle Beulemans plays as a
conventional film farce, although it has a few scenes where the influence
of the avant-garde is felt - albeit far less noticeably than on other films
by Duvivier from this period. A good example of this is the pipe-smoking
competition sequence, which is notable not only for being the most surreal
part of the film, but also the most imaginatively directed. With his
carefully crafted set-ups, camera movement and some slick editing,
Duvivier derives as much tension, suspense and humour as he can from what
is clearly the most absurd exhibition of male vanity imaginable.
Duvivier's penchant for superimposition shows up periodically, most visibly
in the lengthy introduction where filmed inserts of various famous Belgian
landmarks are placed within the turning pages of a book. The film ends
on a high note with the kind of farcical set-piece you would expect of René
Clair or Billy Wilder - two wedding processions suddenly colliding, leading
to an inevitable grouchy punch-up and all-smiles reconciliation.
Le
Mariage de mademoiselle Beulemans shows us what an exemplary comedy director
Julien Duvivier could well have been, had he shown a preference for this
kind of cinema. Instead, he preferred the much darker path that would
lead to his poetic realist masterpieces -
La Belle équipe (1936)
and
Pépé-le-Moko
(1937) - films where humour gives way to the grimmest of irony and only the
wriest of smiles dare venture onto our lips.
© James Travers 2023
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
In Brussels, Ferdinand Beulemans is the proud owner of one
of the city's leading breweries. He has high hopes of being elected
Honorary President of the Brewers' Society, his only serious rival being
Monsieur Meulemeester whose son Séraphím is promised in marriage
to the Beulemans' beautiful daughter Suzanne. Whilst Suzanne has no
deep feelings for her future husband, she agrees to the marriage out of a
sense of duty to her parents, not knowing that Séraphím's sole
motive for wedding her is the generous dowry offered by her father.
Things become complicated upon the arrival of Albert Delpierre, an ambitious
young man from Paris who hopes to learn the brewing business from Meulemeester.
It isn't long before Albert takes a liking to Suzanne, but whilst she appears
unmoved by his declarations of love, she soon develops a fondness for him.
If only she wasn't already promised to another man!
Then comes the shocking revelation that Séraphím has had a
secret love affair with another woman, resulting in the birth of a baby boy.
Because the woman belongs to a social class way beneath Séraphím
there was never any prospect of his marrying her. Visiting the wronged
woman and her adorable infant, Suzanne takes it upon herself to persuade
Séraphím to do the honourable thing and marry his former sweetheart.
Released from her engagement, Suzanne is now free to marry the man she truly
loves - Albert. But how can Albert gain his future father-in-law's
approval? An opportunity presents itself when he is able to speak in
Beulemans's favour at a meeting to elect the next Honorary President of the
Brewers' Society. Alas, the rift between Beulemans and Meulemeester
now appears to be permanent - until the happy day when the wedding processions
for the two happy couples run into each other. Amid the joyful reunion,
the two rival brewers appear happily reconciled.
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.