Vire-vent

Nobody did Jean Faurez justice ; in the short space of five years ,he made several very interesting movies which possess strong appeal for fans of old French cinema: "service de nuit" (1943) "la fille aux yeux gris" (1945) "la vie en rose" (1947) ; "vire-vent " is his most intriguing one,and in its own way ,it stands with his best ;on the other hand,both his final efforts are almost worthless.

With "vire-vent" , Faurez seems on Marcel Pagnol 's territory : a small village of Provence where the Donadieu family lives a happy lazy life,always taking it easy ;the father is convinced that there's a treasure buried in his land and he keeps on digging holes to no avail ; his daughters are free and easy ,one of them,Claire , will later refuse her mom's gift cause " I cannot wear white for my wedding ";and her sister loses her panties in the woods .Three spinsters comment on their life ,and on the village's life ,some kind of Greek Fates .

The big event is the fete ; games , balls and provençal farandoles ,joy everywhere,never a thought for tomorrow, easy come easy go....till HE comes;it takes 30 minutes before the male lead (Roger Pigaut) appears ;he marries Claire Donadieu (Sophie Desmarets) -the wedding scene is not filmed ,that means a lot- : he 's a man from mountains , to many an intruder, an alien and he is different from this happy-go-lucky family unit ;for this pragmatic man, the treasure is not buried in the ground, it's wheat ,it's culture , it's work ,as poet La Fontaine wrote in his "le laboureur et ses enfants" fable .

Paul Chapus imposes a new way of life based on work, effort and rigour , something of the Maréchal Pétain's ideology during the Occupation. A detail revealing a big malaise ,he's never called by his first name (Paul) but everyone ,including his wife , says "Chapus" ; all the villagers follow suit :he's Chapus, the killjoy, who rules his household with a rod of iron.

But the Occupation days are fortunately over ,it's 1949 ,and the rebel family is not prepared to accept this iron discipline ;the clash is bound to happen. And it's the main originality of Faurez's work :he does not really take sides ,and the viewer does not either :after all ,Paul is a good-looking virtuous man ,who knows that the future is not ours to see ,that father Donadieu 's search for an imaginary treasure is pointless;on the other hand his family is not to blame either :after the hard years of 1940-44, their longing for pleasure and a carefree life is legitimate .

Thus the ending is ambiguous ; is it a happy end? Is the very last scene so funny? Dark irony,more like!