Un chapeau de paille d'Italie (1928)
Directed by René Clair

Film Review

By the time he came to direct Un chapeau de paille d'Italie René Clair had just four full-length films under his belt - three fantasy offerings (Paris qui dort, Le Fantôme du Moulin-Rouge and Le Voyage imaginaire) and one conventional melodrama (La Proie du vent).  Fairly modest as this achievement was, Clair was already widely recognised as one of the leading avant-garde figures in French cinema, a participant in the so-called impressionist movement that included Abel Gance, Jean Epstein and Marcel L'Herbier.  For his fourth major cinematic offering, Clair took a drastic step back from the stylistic and technical innovations of his preceding films and contented himself with serving up an unashamed crowd-pleaser, a light comedy adapted from a popular stage play of the early 1850s, written by Eugène Labiche.

Although comedy had found its way into some of Clair's previous films - most notably his anarchic short Entr'acte (1924) and his fantasy debut feature Paris qui dort (1925), it wasn't until he made Un chapeau de paille d'Italie that the director found he had a genuine flair for it, with the result that the bulk of his subsequent oeuvre is comedy-oriented, his most notable successes being Le Million (1931), À nous la liberté (1931) and I Married a Witch (1942).  Assisted by Georges Lacombe (who would later become an impressive film director in his own right), René Clair takes a somewhat wordy theatrical piece and effortlessly transposes it into a ballet of pure visual farce.

By time-shifting the date of the original play by almost half a century to the mid-1890s, Clair's film proves to be a scurrilous satire on bourgeois values that would have greatly amused French cinema audiences of the late 1920s with its cheerful mockery of the middleclass's obsession with appearances and decorum.  The destruction of a woman's immaculate straw hat becomes a symbol of a marital infidelity which can never be put right, no matter how much the hapless hero of the piece may try.  It is the sheer futility of Fadinard's mission to find a substitute hat and thereby save the reputations of everyone involved in this fiasco that provides the film with much of its humour.

The casting of Albert Préjean in the role of Fadinard was an inspired choice and finally turned the thirty-four year-old actor into a major star of French cinema.  Clair had previously employed the actor on three earlier films in minor roles but he recognised both his talent and his crowd-pulling ability, securing his celebrity status with his next film Sous les toits de Paris (1930).  Préjean's athleticism and flair for visual comedy are exploited to the full in Un chapeau de paille, imbuing it with something of the manic dynamism found in the contemporary slapstick comedies from the Keystone studios.

Whilst it may lack the originality and visual flair of Clair's more experimental films of this period, Un chapeau de paille d'Italie still rates as one of his finest screen offerings, its unflagging sense of fun and merciless lampooning of bourgeois attitudes making it arguably the most entertaining entry in his impressive oeuvre.  The film is certainly vastly superior to the 1940s remake which was directed by Maurice Cammage with scant verve and even less artistry.  Even with a comic actor of the  prowess of Fernandel in the lead role the later film fails to shine even half as brightly as René Clair's superlative silent comedy.

Film Synopsis

France, 1895.  One fine day, a handsome young man named Fadinard is on the way to his wedding when calamity strikes.  His horse takes a fancy to a woman's straw hat and can't resist taking a bite out of it.  It so happens that, at the time, the hat's owner is in the arms of a proud military man, Lieutenant Tavernier.  The latter is anxious to keep his affair with his mistress Anaïs, a married woman, a secret, and fears the worst may happen if she returns home without her straw hat.  To avoid a scandal Tavernier is impelled to call on Fadinard at his home and beg him to give him a substitute hat to safeguard his mistress's honour.  Seeing that the officer means business Fadinard has no option but to set out at once and find a hat to replace the one his horse has so thoughtlessly devoured.  He has more than Tavernier's wrath to fear if he fails in his quest.  What will his bride-to-be Hélène make of his latest escapade if she ever finds out?  Finding a new straw hat turns out to be the least of Fadinard's worries...