Film Review
Monsieur des Lourdines
exemplifies the kind of rural melodrama that was massively popular in
France throughout the 1930s and 40s, thanks partly to the success of
Marcel Pagnol's slices of Provençal life, which began with his
famous
Trilogie
de Marseille. It is by no means the best example of
its genre, and by comparison with Pagnol's films it can hardly help
looking stilted and contrived. Its main interest today is that it
evokes, with an almost chilling power, the ethos of the Vichy
régime at the time of the Occupation, which is succinctly
encapsulated in the motto of puppet prime minister Maréchal
Pétain:
Travail, famille,
patrie.
Having watched the film, it comes as no surprise to learn that it was
in fact directed by a relative of Pétain, namely his son-in-law
Pierre de Hérain (the first of five films he made), and was
adapted from a novel by one of the most prominent collaborators of the
Occupation, Alphonse de Chateaubriant. The latter won the prix
Goncourt (France's highest literary award) when he first published the
novel in 1911, but was disgraced after the war and condemned to death
(he escaped the sentence by hiding in a Tyrolean monastery until his
death in 1951). Chateaubriant's modern retelling of the Prodigal
Son certainly chimed with Pétainist ideology, which sought to
instil new values of patriotism, hard work and family loyalty into the
French people after the apparent failure of the Third French Republic.
In part because of its Pétainist associations, but also because
it represents a kind of melodrama that now feels painfully outdated,
Monsieur des Lourdines is not a
comfortable film to watch. The pace is lethargic, the script
dull, the mise-en-scène at best uninspired and
the performances are more likely to send you to sleep than grab your attention. Only
Germaine Dermoz's captivating turn as the
protagonist's mother rings true and her charismatic presence alone makes the
film worth watching. By contrast, Raymond Rouleau's flaccid,
expressionless performance does the film no favours at all and you
wonder why he was one of the most popular actors of this era.
Artistically, the only areas where the film does impress is its
cinematography and camerawork. Together, these bring an
unremitting aura of stifling oppression to the latter half of the film
which effectively evokes the weight of the personal tragedies bearing
down on the protagonists as fate and human frailty do their
worst. There is a genuine sense of relief when this crushing
burden is lifted as the wayward son learns the error of his ways and
becomes a good little Pétainist. Vichy propaganda doesn't
come much more blatant than this.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Dying of boredom at his family estate in the country, Anthime des
Lourdines flees to Paris to live the life of a reckless prodigal.
In doing so, he gets himself into debt as he pursues an ill-judged love
affair and his parents must sell off a large part of their estate to
prevent him from being sent to prison. Disillusioned with city
life, Anthime returns to the country, hoping to make amends. He
arrives too late to prevent his aged mother from dying of a broken
heart...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.