Le fruit défendu

1st watched 1/1/2003 - 3 out of 10(Dir-Henri Verneuil): Sober drama about a well-to-do Doctor who gets into trouble carrying on a relationship with a younger woman, whom his family brings in to live with them, as well as being married to another in the same household. His searching for happiness is not clear, but they do bring out the reason for his unhappiness rather well by displaying the overbearing trait of the females in his wife's line. Well played, but predictable drama.

Simenon's novel Lettre à mon juge is here filmed as Forbidden Fruit by a competent commercial director, Henri Verneuil, and a fine cast made up of Fernandel, Raymond Pellegrin, Sylvie, Claude Nollier and Françoise Arnoul. Fernandel, one of the finest actors of world cinema when he wasn't making Don Camillo pictures, does a wonderful impression of a man drowning in provincial bourgeois respectability whose life is turned upside down by a sexy young thing met by chance in a train station. There are several superb scenes: for instance, at the outdoor concert where the dancers wind through the crowd, thoroughly disturbing Dr. Pellegrin's guilty thoughts.

What happened to Françoise Arnoul's career? She's unforgettable as Martine, the thoughtless little adventurer who uses men as steps on a ladder. Her apotheosis came in French Can-Can two years later with Renoir; as Nini the seamstress turned dancer she made a sensation. The New Wave directors ignored her however, and she was stuck playing tarts in thrillers for many years.

"Le fruit défendu" (= French for "the forbidden fruit") deals with an all too familiar theme: a man aged 45, locked up in his marriage, fatherhood and profession, gets involved with a much younger girl.

Set in the early fifties in the South of France, the predictability of this film's story is more than compensated by both Fernanadel's and Arnoul's excellent acting.

These two leads treat us to some fine human nuances. For instance, how their affair's development is favored by the wife's cold ambition to keep up with high society -- leaving much of her husband's genuine feelings towards her unanswered in the process.

Also fascinating is the mix between the young girl's passion and calculation. And how the latter gradually takes over with the progress of their affair.

But for Fernandel's and Arnoul's play, this film would have been forgotten for a long time.

Considering Neo-Realism was really invented by a French writer-director, Marcel Pagnol (who also invented "poetic realism" in the process), this is its natural legacy. It could have been called "Adultery - French Provincial Style". It is remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which is Fernandel's dramatic turn as a two-timing husband giving in to temptation with a kind of childish, innocent glee and Françoise Arnoul's affirmation as a typically French sex symbol representing everything "wrong" with the new generation. It is realistic in that it doesn't over-dramatize the sexual aspects but delves rather seriously in the social and psychological consequences of adultery. It is also shot on location in Arles. The production values, direction, music (by Paul "Mademoiselle de Paris" Durand) and acting (including a good part for Sylvie) are beyond compare. Highly recommended and worth more than all the New Wave films combined...

A medium=sized box-office hit in its time, the forbidden fruit is, of course, lovely Françoise Arnoul, whom shy, bourgeois country doctor Fernandel decides to keep as his secret mistress in Arles. All good Simenon stuff. Echoes of Monsieur Hire and Inspector Maigret's countryside dossiers. But this is rather a provincial melodrama than a noir thriller. Scriptwriter Companeez was a real pro and the same goes to composer Paul Durand. All in all, an efficient product from the Verneuil factory line. By 1952 - the year when Hollywood reached its production peak, quantitatively speaking - I used to go to the movies literally every day, actually more than once a day, I mean, shows used to be double features plus newsreels plus serial chapter plus short Westerns etc etc. In my own provincial town (actually larger than Arles, France, nevertheless somewhat duller) the Forbidden Fruit would be the second half of a Fridy-thru-Sunday double feature. But I wasn't allowed to see it then. It was X-rated. I can see it now on cable TV. Family stuff, naturally, and quite entertaining quand-même.