Les Vignes du Seigneur (1958)
Directed by Jean Boyer

Film Review

Robert de Flers and Francis de Croisset wrote their bourgeois comedy Les Vignes du Seigneur in 1923, so this might explain why Jean Boyer's screen adaptation of this popular stageplay feels somewhat out of place in French cinema of the late 1950s, a time when the Nouvelle Vague was rearing up to make its mark.  It is in fact a remake of an earlier film of the same title, directed by René Hervil in 1932 and starring Victor Boucher in the role conferred on Fernandel in Boyer's version.  Whilst never the most imaginative of filmmakers, Boyer had an unerring knack of turning out uplifting crowdpleasers, and whilst Les Vignes du Seigneur is far from being his best film it is an engaging foutaise, which is all the better for Fernandel working as part of an ensemble rather than trying to make it a one-man show.

If the film has a star it is not Fernandel but Béatrice Bretty, who is a delight to watch in her made-to-measure role as the mischief-making matriarch Madame Bourgeon.  With her commanding presence, Bretty leads a troupe of equally capable performers that includes acting legends Pierre Dux (at home in the role of a caddish aristocrat) and Jeanne Fusier-Gir (wickedly funny as ever).  A stunning Simone Valère supplies sex appeal aplenty, lending a somewhat surreal edge to her love scenes with Fernandel.  Apparently, some women go for the equine look.

A cute Evelyne Dandry makes her mark in her first substantial screen role (at the latter end of her career, François Ozon would cast her in two of his films: Sitcom (1998) and Potiche (2010)) and Lona Rita livens things up as Fernandel's badly treated 'false mistress'.  Michel Garland gives a plausible imitation of a young English brat, his francophobic outbursts providing some of the film's funniest moments.  In spite of (or maybe because of) his subdued presence, Fernandel is at his most endearing, and whilst Les Vignes du Seigneur is hardly his most inspired film it is one of his most entertaining, even if it really does look as if it belongs to an earlier decade.

Film Synopsis

After an interval of eighteen months, Henri returns to his old friend Count Hubert of Kardec with the news that he is completely cured of his dipsomania.  He is a new man, his addiction to alcohol apparently supplanted by a craze for telling everyone that he is no longer an alcoholic.  During a shopping expedition, Henri confesses to Gisèle, Hubert's mistress, that the reason he took to drink was so that he could forget how much he loved her.  Gisèle is so moved by this revelation that she loses her heart to Henri and the two become secret lovers.  All is well until the day when, after a car accident, Hubert forces Henri to take a drink with him.  A few glasses of whiskey later, Henri becomes less reticent about his affair with Gisèle...