Un chien qui rapporte (1932)
Directed by Jean Choux

Film Review

The transition from silent to sound cinema in the early 1930s inspired great innovation in filmmakers and accounts for the extraordinary diversity in both subject and technique that we find in this period.  Jean Choux's Un chien qui rapporte is a prime illustration of this, a film which is so stylistically unconventional that it genuinely deserves to be put in a class of its own.

The film is perhaps best known for being the one in which Arletty, that great figure of pre-WWII French cinema, had her first leading role.   Although the part is not the kind we best associate with the actress, her performance - wondrously camp and eccentric in places - serves the film well.   Arletty's co-star René Lèvfre, an established actor from the silent era, is all but eclipsed and overwhelmed by her screen presence, although both actors work surprisingly well together.

Un chien qui rapporte is essentially a conventional romantic farce, of the kind that was hugely popular in theatres at the time, and was indeed based on a stage play.  However, its realisation is anything but conventional, even by the standards of 1931, the year in which it was made.  At the time, filmmakers fell broadly into one of two camps - the great experimentalists who saw cinema as primarily an artistic medium, and those who saw it as a medium solely for mass entertainment.  Whilst the latter sought to pare down cinematic style and let the actors soak up all of the limelight, as in a theatrical production, the former saw style as being the most important thing.  This could be interpreted as the beginning of the rift between mainstream, so-called "popular" cinema, and the cinema of the auteur.  In the late 1920s and early 1930s, there was also a third category of filmmaker, who wanted to make popular films, but who were also keen to experiment with the technology.  Because cinema was an evolving medium, such experimentation in popular cinema was tolerated and even helped to sell the film; a decade later, when cinemagoers had grown accustomed to a standard style of film, such artistic licence was frowned upon by film producers and quickly became a thing of the past.  Jean Choux's cinema fits neatly into this little known "middle camp", something which makes his work of particular interest to film enthusiasts.

Jean Choux's appetite and flair for innovation is apparent in every reel of Un chien qui rapporte.  The exterior location scenes at the start of the film evoke neo-realism, the ceiling shots of Arletty making herself up are pure expressionism, the sets have more than a whiff of art deco, the cheery score - and the handful of musical numbers - transport us to the music hall, whilst the trick photography is a clear homage to the greatest film magician of them all, Georges Méliès.  This is a real hotchpotch of ideas, themes and styles, yet surprisingly the film hangs together rather well and offers many unexpected pleasures.  The exotic costumes, location photography and seemingly endless music convey a real sense of life in the swinging French capital of the early 1930s.

Film Synopsis

Whilst Josyane Plaisir is content with her lot as a cabaret artiste, two things are missing in her life: love and wealth.  She has an opportunity to acquire both when an enterprising dog handler proposes a scheme to snare a wealthy young man.   Josyane agrees to hire a magic dog which has a habit of running off and climbing into motor cars.  Naturally, the owner of the car will return the dog to Josyane, who is free to decide whether he meets her requirements.  Unfortunately, things do not as planned.  Josyane falls in love with her first victim, only to discover that he isn't at all rich.  The situation worsens when Josyane tries the same ruse again...