La vida en el castillo

Rappeneau has directed few films over the past four decades (just seven) but he's created a solid body of work that has meant commercial success even if critics sometimes expressed dismay over the casting of big stars. I wrote about Le Sauvage (1975), expressing my pleasure at the excellent handling of comedy between Deneuve and Montand, and the same is true here. Deneuve is fabulous as the bored wife stuck in the country in wartime--she's dying to get to Paris and won't let her husband forget it. When Henri Garcin as the resistance leader shows up at the château, she's thrilled as well as annoyed at the intrusion into their domestic life.

The film has been made under the sign of tradition: the influence of Feyder's Kermesse heroique is ever-present (the local people trying to outwit the invaders), as well as the aristocratic life satirized by Renoir in Rules of the Game, where the habits of daily life take on great significance (Noiret complains to Deneuve about the apple cores in the basement; she couldn't care less). Now, I await with great anticipation his new film Bon voyage.

This film A MATTER OF RESISTANCE is a French film whose original title is LA VIE DE Château. The 23 year-old Catherine Deneuve, having already appeared in 16 feature films by that age, plays the female lead. Her real name was Catherine Dorléac, being the younger of two beautiful sisters who both quickly became screen goddesses. The year after this film was made, her older sister, Francoise Dorléac, died tragically at the age of only 25, and the whole of France was plunged into mourning. Catherine had until then had been regarded as the lesser of the two, and suddenly she was the only one left. These twists of fate affected the French public and French film industry, and no doubt Catherine 'Deneuve' herself most of all, profoundly. Francoise was really very amazing, and the loss of her was traumatic in Europe somewhat as the early death of James Dean was in America: always mourned, never forgotten. Catherine Deneuve later on developed her cool exterior, but in this film she plays a pouting, spoilt spitfire of a young girl with such passion that the ice queen who was to come cannot even be guessed at. In most of her later films, she appears tall. But in fact she is only 5 feet 6 inches, and here her small size is very evident. She is wearing very obvious sixties makeup with all the prominent eye-liner and looking very much a girl of the 1960s. That is rather odd, considering that the action of the film is set in 1944 near the coast of Normandy. No one in 1944 looked like that, but never mind. The film itself, directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau (perhaps best known for THE HORSEMAN ON THE ROOF, 1995), is delightful. It is directed with such a light Gallic touch, and is extremely entertaining and well made. Deneuve plays the daughter of the farm manager who has married a somewhat older man who is lord of the manor and lives in the huge old 18th century Normandy château. He is played with droll confidence by the ever-engaging Philippe Noiret, then aged 36. Of course we are not used to seeing Deneuve and Noiret when young like this, so it takes some adjusting to our expectations. The film is in black and white, or as the French say in reverse: blanc et noir. It is difficult to believe that Noiret, who made 153 films and was such a mainstay of the French cinema, died as long ago as 2006. So time passes and carries all away. Mary Marquet is superb as Noiret's bossy and commanding mother, a gentlewoman of the old school who will take no nonsense from anybody, including obnoxious Nazi soldiers billeting themselves in her house. D Day is coming soon, and the Resistance are active in the vicinity of the château, preparing for American paratroopers to drop onto the chateau's lawn. But the Nazis have planted sharp stakes in the ground for any paratroopers to land on. There are many complications and intrigues, but the film is chiefly concerned with the comical antics of the characters, and even the chief Nazi officer billeted in the house becomes a figure of fun. This is a light-hearted film, and the backdrop of the War is seen more as an inconvenience to the lives of the characters than as a tragedy and a danger to the country, no matter in how many intrigues they may be involved. Much of the film is devoted to a romantic comedy based upon three men all infatuated with the tempestuous Deneuve. It is really a lot of fun.

"La vie de château" is little known in the US, but it was popular in France and won the Prix Louis-Delluc. It's built around Catherine Deneuve as a farm girl who has married Jérome, the winded scion of a grand seigneurial family (Philippe Noiret), and is discontented as a result. Pent up in their crumbling château in Normandy, she longs for the high life of Paris. Her husband, though, seems pleased to slowly rot away, as long as the ancestral orchards keep producing the finest fruit in the world; he bears himself as the final fruit of a noble line. His widowed mother (Mary Marquet) lives with them, playing the piano with a lofty air while ceiling plaster falls into the wires. She dotes on her son, but can't help reminding him that he's not the man his father was. His father-in-law, a growling old peasant with a keen grasp of the situation (Pierre Brasseur), reminds him of the same thing. The château is mortgaged to the hilt, and the former tenant is in a position to buy it cheaply, and become the new seigneur. Into this set-up parachutes Henri Garcin as a member of the Resistance, sent to spy out the German troop placements in the neighboring countryside. For our Normandy farce is set in the spring of 1944. The ineffectual husband is indifferent to the German invaders, and unaware of the activities of the Resistance: we may have a small fable unfolding here. Both the German colonel and the French patriot want to dress Deneuve in finery and take her to the Paris of her dreams – but the sticking point is that her husband really does love her, and an unpredictable gallant lover awakens under his placid surface.

Deneuve has none of the usual technique needed for playing farce, but the serene quality of her beauty keeps her from straining at it. When the young wife's frustrations make her fly into anger over trifles, the flights are truly jarring and spiky; the comedy is in Noiret's limitless capacity for absorbing these darts – or is it limitless?

The fine score is by Michel Legrand.

Jean Paul Rappeneau is considered as an outsider in the world of French cinema because of his scant cinematographic output.This does not mean that he has not produced works of quality.He has made many interesting films including some literary adaptations and has also worked with some of the big names in French cinema as Montand,Adjani,Noiret and Deneuve. This film called "La vie de Château" is a perfect example of laughter during the times of war.Both the lead players Catherine Deneuve and Philippe Noret look much too young.The film shows a typical quality of French people: Paris is always better than provincial towns.This is because Paris as everything which people want: discos,cinemas, theaters,night clubs and of course restaurants.The depiction of war is also very humorous as a soldier instead of fighting falls in love with a beautiful woman.This is a charming film depicting the natural beauty of French countryside.The only regret is that it was filmed in black and white.

With the director of "Zazie in the Metro", and both the star and composer from "Umbrellas of Cherbourg", how could this be anything but brilliant! Set in a decaying chateau during World War II, populated by eccentrics, with Germans camping out in the courtyard while the French Resistance goes about under their very noses.

Something like a Carry On film at times, with touches of Allo Allo. Sometimes you get the impression someone is about to burst into song - I wonder if it would have worked as a musical? Deneuve is marvelous - beautiful, and very funny as she twists her husband round her finger, and staves off advances in all directions.

A pleasing classic that you shouldn't miss, but the combination of black and white, and subtitles may be offputting to some.