Le Petit chose (1938)
Directed by Maurice Cloche

Film Review

Director Maurice Cloche earned his place in posterity with Monsieur Vincent (1947), the first French language film to win an Oscar, but apart from this one cinematic triumph his work is mostly overlooked, perhaps unjustly.  One of his first successes was Le Petit chose (1938), an engaging period drama based on Alphonse Daudet's celebrated autobiographical novel of the same title.  Best known for his anthology of rural stories, Lettres de mon moulin, Daudet was one of the most important chroniclers of his time, and in Le Petit chose he ventured a poignant account of how the dreams of youth are snuffed out by the harsh realities of life owing to the socio-political turmoil in France of the mid-19th century.  Cloche's understated film, released on the eve of WWII, would have struck an immediate chord with the younger generation, at a time when the future had never seemed so bleak and uncertain.

It is ironic that the film's lead actor, Robert Lynen, would be one of the casualties of the conflict that was just over the horizon.  A talented child actor, he first found fame in Julien Duvivier's Poil de carotte (1932) and featured in a dozen subsequent films, including Marc Allégret's Sans famille (1934) and Robert Siodmak's Mollenard (1937).  Two years after his final film, Cap au large (1942), Lynen was arrested by the Gestapo after being active in the French Resistance and subsequently shot whilst imprisoned at Karlsruhe.  Jean Mercanton, who plays Lynen's ill-fated brother in the film, also met with a premature death, dying from polio at the age 27 in 1947.  Mercanton was only a few weeks old when he made his screen debut, in Miarka, la fille à l'ourse (1920), a film directed by his father Louis Mercanton and featuring Ivor Novello.   Mirroring the cruel fate of the characters they play in Cloche's film, Lynen and Mercanton's artistic careers were tragically cut short by the brutal realities of life.  Fortunately, the same was not so for the lead actress, Arletty, who not only survived the 'years of darkness' but went on to become one of the enduring icons of French cinema.

It was in Marcel Carné's Hôtel du nord (1938), released six months after Le Petit chose, that Arletty emerged as one of the great acting talents of her time, but before this she had appeared in over twenty films, most typically cast in her habitual role of the sympathetic tart.  In Cloche's film, her earthiness and unadorned sensuality make an effective contrast with Lynen's angelic naivety, and it is with this depiction of the corruption of innocence that the film is most effective.  The performances are generally of a high standard (as befits a quality period piece of this era), with some entertaining supporting contributions from Charpin and Jean Tissier (the former at his most toe-curlingly bonhomous, the latter at his most creepily monstrous). The famous classical guitarist Ida Presti made her one film appearance here at the age of 14 and Robert Le Vigan crops up in a few scenes, a model of duplicity if ever there was one - you'd never think he'd end up as a Nazi collaborator.  Le Petit chose may not be as memorable as the superb Vincent de Paul biopic that Cloche would direct after the war, but it is a respectable example of its genre and a worthy memorial to two talented young actors who were taken well before their time.

Film Synopsis

The 1848 revolution in France brings ruin to the Eyssette family, which is forced to sell a once prosperous business and move to Lyon.  As the younger son Daniel continues his studies at college, his brother Jacques heads for Paris, where he finds a post as a secretary to a marquis.  Lack of money forces Daniel to abandon his education and he becomes a supervisor, before being dismissed for subordination.  He moves to Paris, hoping to make his name as a poet.  Here, he falls in love with a singer, Irma Borel, and is easily lured into pursuing a dissolute life.  His reputation in tatters, Daniel has no option but to give up his dreams of becoming a poet and accept an offer of work in a porcelain shop.  Further disaster follows when his brother Jacques falls seriously ill...