Les Petites du quai aux fleurs (1944)
Directed by Marc Allégret

Film Review

For all his versatility as a film director, Marc Allégret was always more successful with his melodramas than his comedies.  Les Petites du quai aux fleurs is one of the few films he made that effectively combined melodrama and comedy into a satisfying mélange, although it is hard to see how the film could have failed with such a distinguished cast and talented pair of screenwriters.  The plot has a ring of Lubitsch madness about it, but writers Marcel Achard and Jean Aurenche keep the comedy under control and prevent the film from descending into outright farce (as tended to happen with most of Allégret's comedies).  Bittersweet and witty rather than laugh-out-loud hilarious, Les Petites du quai aux fleurs feels like a forerunner of the modern rom-com and is arguably the most satisfying of Allégret's brushes with comedy.

Marc Allégret was an accomplished and highly successful filmmaker but his real genius was as a talent spotter.  Many of French cinema's most iconic performers owe their success to Allégret's astute eye and willingness to nurture talent whenever it came his way.  As well as some notable established performers - Bernard Blier, Odette Joyeux, Louis Jourdan, Jane Marken and André Lefaur (excellent in his last screen role) - Les Petites du quai aux fleurs is bursting at the seams with promising newcomers.  Not all of these would go on to stardom - Simone Sylvestre, the most striking ingénue in the cast, would soon fade into obscurity.  But three would flourish and within a few years become among the most sought-after actors in France - Gérard Philipe, Danièle Delorme and Daniel Gélin.  Not long after this, Louis Jourdan would be on his way to Hollywood to become a big international star, featuring in two of Vincente Minnelli's best known films, Madame Bovary (1949) and Gigi (1958).

With so much dazzling star power and glamour vying for our attention, it is surprising that Bernard Blier manages to monopolise our attention to the extent that he does.  Odette Joyeux gives him a good run for his money, but Les Petites du quai aux fleurs is mostly Blier's film, one of the first in which his penchant for dead pan comedy is most apparent and used to brilliant effect.  Blier may not have Louis Jourdan's saturnine good looks or Gérard Philipe's juvenile charm, but he is a born scene stealer and has no difficulty eclipsing both of these burgeoning matinee idols in his tailor-made role as a sympathetic goon.  (The scene in which he gets his head stuck in the helmet of a suit of armour, à la Mr Bean, is a classic).  Allégret had given Blier some of his first screen roles, in Gribouille (1937) and Entrée des artistes (1938), but it wasn't until Les Petites du quai aux fleurs that he gave the actor a part worthy of his talents.  Yes, it's an impeccably crafted film, beautifully photographed by Henri Alekan and with a cast to die for, but what makes it special is a tour de force performance from Bernard Blier, no longer a budding young actor but an almost fully fledged monstre sacré.

Film Synopsis

After his wife walked out on him, Frédéric Grimaud was left to bring up his four daughters single-handedly.  Today, Édith, Indiana, Bérénice and Rosine are rapidly approaching womanhood as they help their ageing father run his busy bookshop on the Quai aux Fleurs.  Rosine, the youngest daughter, has fallen madly in love with Francis, the handsome fiancé of her sister Édith.  In a desperate state, she telephones Francis to let him know that she intends to kill herself.  As Rosine hurries away, Francis appeals to a total stranger, a young doctor named Bertrand, to go after her and ensure she comes to no harm.  As he plays the Good Samaritan, Bertrand tries to justify his interest in Rosine to her family by passing himself off as her fiancé, without success...