Film Review
A fugitive from Nazi Germany, Billy Wilder cut his directing teeth
during his brief sojourn in France with a low budget film that he was
quick to disown after he had made a name for himself in
Hollywood.
Mauvaise graine
has none of the gloss and sophistication of Wilder's subsequent films,
although it shows one of his trademarks, his obsession with continuous
motion - evident in his boisterous comedies
Some Like It Hot (1959) and
One, Two, Three (1961).
Before this, Wilder had begun a promising career as a screenwriter in
Germany, on such films as
Menschen am Sonntag (1930) and
Emil und die Detektive
(1931). Wilder's first experience of directing was not an easy
one and it would be another eight years before he directed his next
film,
The Major and the Minor
(1942), after he had established himself as a screenwriter in
Hollywood. Although Wilder is credited as directing the film with
Alexander Esway, it was Wilder who did most of the work (according to
Danielle Darrieux, Esway was never seen on set). Esway's
participation may have been purely nominal, to allow Wilder to raise
the money to make the film.
Unable to scrape together the resources to mount a polished studio
production, Wilder and his team were driven by necessity to shoot the
entire film on location, something that was virtually unheard of in
French cinema at the time. As a consequence,
Mauvaise graine has a raw dynamism
and modernity that is quite unlike any French film of this
period. Indeed, it seems to have more in common with the early
work of the French New Wave, which came a quarter of a century
later. For the protracted car chase sequences (which were
extremely ambitious for the time), Wilder was unable to avail himself
of the kind of trickery that today's filmmakers take for granted - they
were shot for real (as a documentary), with the director pointing a
camera out of the back of a fast-moving van.
Wilder was fortunate to secure the services of Danielle Darrieux and
Pierre Mingand, two rising stars who were then both at the start of
their screen careers. Darrieux was only 16 when she made the
film, but already she had star quality and was very soon to become one
of the most iconic performers in French cinema. A pianist
with Ray Ventura's orchestra, Mingand enjoyed success as a singer,
musician and actor; a close friend of Darrieux, he worked with her on
three other films, including
Mademoiselle
Mozart (1936),
Abus de
confiance (1937) and
Retour
à l'aube (1938). The other notable name in the cast
list is Raymond Galle, who would later star alongside Darrieux in
Jacques Deval's cross-dressing farce
Club
de femmes (1936).
Billy Wilder's penchant for lively comedy is very evident in
Mauvaise graine, although the
humour is much blunter than in his slicker Hollywood offerings.
This film's funniest moments are the frantic car chases, which evoke a
little of the madness of the earlier
Keystone
Cops films (thanks in part to the jaunty
jazz-like score supplied by Franz Waxman), although there is plenty of humorous interaction
between the car thieves, some of whom could pass for fully paid up
members of the Crazy Gang. Wilder's reputation for
taboo-shattering subversion surfaces only slightly, in the hint of a
homoerotic relationship between the two characters Henri and
Jean-la-Cravate. (The scene in which they exchange their neckties is
highly suggestive.) The film's title literally translates as
Bad Seed, meaning
Bad Lot - which is perhaps as much an
allusion to Henri's ambiguous sexuality as his criminal
tendencies. No one could mistake
Mauvaise graine for a classic, but
it does exhibit the seeds of that Wilder greatness that would one day
flourish in the more benign climate of Hollywood.
© James Travers 2012
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
The son of a prosperous surgeon, Henri Pasquier is a good-for-nothing
playboy who spends most of his time speeding around Paris in his
roadster. Imagine then his anguish when his father confiscates
his car and sells it, in an attempt to get his son to change his
ways. Henri cannot believe his good fortune when, a few days
later, he sees his beloved car in the street, with the keys in the
ignition. Without a moment's hesitation, he climbs into the car
and drives away in it. He is pursued across Paris by another car,
driven by men belonging to a gang of car thieves. Taken to the
garage where the thieves repaint their stolen cars, Henri readily
agrees to join the gang. Henri strikes up an immediate friendship
with one of the younger members of the gang, a lad named
Jean-la-Cravate because he can't help stealing ties. Jean
introduces his new friend to his sister Jeannette, whose role is to
lure wealthy men away from their cars so that Jean and his friends can
purloin them without being noticed. The gang's boss takes a
dislike to Henri when he insists he and his fellow gang members are
entitled to more money for their efforts. In an attempt to get
rid of the troublesome Henri, the gang leader sends him and Jeannette
to Marseille, in a car with a broken front axle. En route, Henri
is spotted by the police and a lengthy night-time chase ensues.
Miraculously, Henri and Jeannette survive a car crash and hitch a lift
to Marseille, from which they plan to take a ship to another
country. Jeannette cannot leave without her brother, so Henri
returns to Paris to fetch him. He arrives just as the police are
about to raid the thieves' garage...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.