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

Film Review

René Clair's skilful transposition of Eugène Labiche's popular play Un chapeau de paille d'Italie from the 1850s to the 1890s provides an outrageously funny satire on bourgeois attitudes that is as entertaining today as it was when it was first seen in the 1920s.  The plot may be childishly simple, ridiculous in places, but Clair turns it into a non-stop comedy tour de force, showing off not only his mastery of visual comedy but also his flair for storytelling.  The period setting (la Belle époque) was chosen to emphasise the absurdity of Bourgeois obsession with decorum and honour, which is crudely symbolised by the straw hat of the film's title.  Only by finding an identical straw hat to the one that was soiled by a dumb beast can a lady's reputation be salvaged - but, alas, straw hats of the right kind are hard to come by....

Un chapeau de paille d'Italie is one of René Clair's sublime masterpieces, an irresistible work that easily justifies a place alongside his other great films:  À nous la liberté (1931), Le Million (1931) and Quatorze juillet (1933).  In the lead role is a young Albert Préjean, who would become one of the leading lights of French cinema in the 1930s and 40s, often cast as the working class romantic hero.  As for Clair, his career was only just beginning when the silent era came to an abrupt end.  The arrival of sound, coinciding with his next film, Sous les toits de Paris (1930), would open up whole new vistas...

Film Synopsis

The year is 1895.  Fadinard is on the way to his wedding when his horse picks up and eats a straw hat.  The owner of the hat is a married woman who, at the time, is in the embrace of a French officer, Lieutenant Tavernier.  The officer follows Fadinard  to his new home and demands that he finds a substitute hat so that his mistress can return home to her husband without arousing suspicion.  Fearing that Tavernier will wreck his new apartment, Fadinard hastens away to his wedding, using every opportunity he can to find a replacement hat.  When finally he does manage to find the elusive hat, things becomes even more complicated...