Farandole

Yesterday I found and saw this comedy made just before the liberation of France (february 10th 1945).I haven't seen a lot of French films made during the second world war: I can only remember "Le Corbeau " directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot (september 28th 1943) and "Les enfants du paradis" directed by Marcel Carné (March 2nd 1945). Farandole is a serie of short stories:, a ruined banker abandoned by his mistress, a prostitute who meets the banker just before his suicide, a crook who goes away with the money of the prostitute, an actress who meet the crook, a typist who kills the wife of her lover, the trial of the typist,the crook is arrested,etc.I forget the story of a poodle called "Bonsoir" gift of the ruined bank to the prostitute. It's a simple comedy and the most important is the very good performance of Paulette Dubost as the prostitute.

First version of what will be fully achieved by Max Ophuls ("La Ronde" ,1950),then butchered by Roger Vadim (same title ,1964).

Henri Jeanson would have written the dialogs ,under a pseud,being blacklisted and even jailed for his pacifism ;but,apart perhaps for some line now and then ,(notably Dubost's ) ,his touch is hardly felt in this jumble: the screenplay is desultory , extremely patchy : sitting on a fence, the director does not seem to be able to choose :comedy or drama: probably the former, but the funny moments are few and far between .

This is a stodgy brew in which you find a suicidal man, a crook, a hooker (Paulette Dubost might be the only one to play her game well), an actress (special effects for Gaby Morlay 's short stint ), a trial (Jany Holt ,ill at ease , does not seem to know whether she 's in a drama or in a farce ),reporters vying for their headlines ,a poodle named "Bonsoir" (Good Evening) and 20,000 Francs which pass from hand to hand .

André Zwobada 's firts effort was a sci-fi movie,an anomaly on the French scene during the Occupation and a curio ; his "La Septième Porte" is a strange fable which deserves to be watched .As for "Farandole ",it's eminently forgettable .

Just saw this movie on YouTube. Speaking of films which deserve to be remembered as part of the French Golden Age, WW2 was far from being a sad period of time for the motion picture industry in occupied France, thanks to The Continentale Company, and others. This film (whoever produced it) has got all the qualities and all the defaults of the average French production : It's focusing on its actors only, not on the director. French people wanted to watch their favorite actors all the time, no matter what they had to play. Think of what this could've been without the great Lise Delamare (from the Comédie Française) who personifies a fascinating courtesan in a Suzy Delair type, without Dubost (who lost 50 000 francs, by the way, not twenty ... check at 24'39'' when she says it loudly), the tremendous Blier, the star Morlay (talking too fast, speech hard to catch here), and of course, without their dialogues. I believe Jeanson also worked on the trial scenes, in court. The punchy lines written for the attorneys are certainly his, as the prosecutor and the defender harshly and so brilliantly confront themselves. Nevertheless, to me, this film looks more than a sketch or a draft, simply because the cast does it all, as usual in the French cinema, with even more imagination inspired by that strange direction. Not at all the average main program you would have expected in a theater of that time ...