Film Review
Le Père de Mademoiselle
is the film that put a decisive nail in the coffin of Marcel
L'Herbier's filmmaking career. Based on a play of the same title
by Roger Ferdinand, the film looks as if it was made in a completely
different era, a tedious bourgeois comedy stuck in a 1930s
timewarp. After the flop that was
Les Derniers Jours de Pompéi
(1950), L'Herbier was presumably trying to play it safe, but all he
does is to convince the world how irrelevant and out-of-touch he
is. After this final cinematic endeavour, L'Herbier gave up
making films for cinema altogether and instead redirected his dwindling
talents to French television, concluding his career with a series of
documentaries, the most interesting being an essay on the French
fantasy film,
Le Cinéma du
diable (1967).
Even if it were to fall into the lap of a more talented and
enthusiastic director,
Le
Père de Mademoiselle would still be a pretty uninspiring
proposition. It's one of those plays that only works on the stage
and will only look static and ponderous if projected onto the big
screen. The distinguished principal cast do their best but lustre
is distinctly lacking, as much in their performances as in the stilted
dialogue and workmanlike direction. Although past her best,
Arletty still manages to light up any scene she appears in, but here
her talents are largely wasted, ditto going for André Luguet and
Denise Grey. With apologies to William Blake, in reference to
this sleep-inducing plod-a-thon you have to ask "Did he who made
L'Argent make thee?
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Marcel L'Herbier film:
L'Homme du large (1920)
Film Synopsis
Françoise Marinier refuses to allow her parents, a respectable
bourgeois couple, to decide whom she should marry. So she leaves
home and moves to Paris, where she is soon engaged as a secretary to
the popular actress Edith Mars. The latter is the mistress of
Renaudin, the Minister of Justice. When Françoise's father
pays an impromptu visit he allows himself to be duped into believing it
his daughter who is being kept by a minister of state. In fact,
she is amorously involved with a far less important personage, a humble
ministerial attaché...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.