Der Totentisch

I saw a scratchy VCR copy of this the other night. I'd heard good things about it. The black and white Provencal images are nice, but unfortunately that's about all I enjoyed. One more time Fernandel leading a draft horse....one time too many for that image as far as I'm concerned. The "slice of life" across the little town was nice, and a prelude to what I think was done better in Boulanger de Valorgue. What I really disliked about this film was its broad cruelty. Fernandel expresses shock when he comes home to find his wife hanging from a rafter, but that's it. No remorse, no emotion of any kind. Even for someone he doesn't love I would have expected something more. I don't know whether this is a reflection on the director or Fernandel's acting ability, but it gave the whole story a kind of jarring unreality. There was also a lot of needless cruelty involving the facture - a butt of jokes in many French films - but the first time I've seen one shot. Finally, the film ties up a lot of the plot's messiness at the end in a poor way, in order to generate a happy fade-out. This film was hard enough to find. It's a pity that it's even harder to recommend for viewing.