Família Exótica

Of the seven films written by Jacques Prevert and directed by Marcel Carne I have now seen five - and I have the published screenplay of 'Jenny' their initial collaboration and now the only one I have yet to see. This is the kind of film that brings out the hybridologist in reviewers, the Marx Brothers Meet Mel Brooks type of Screamers and it has to be said that the film does lend itself to that type of journo's trick. Of course any film written by Prevert and directed by Carne is going to be worth seeing whatever the story and whoever the cast. In terms of cast this is a doozy; Michel Simon, Francoise Rosay, Louis Jouvet, Jean-Louis Barrault, Jean-Pierre Aumont, on the surface the cream of French cinema between the wars, but if we stop and look again we realize that what we have here is a series of disparate acting styles so the logical question is what type of story can possibly accommodate this bizarre melange. Answer: Precisely the sort of story Prevert has supplied in which a group of top French actors are transplanted to Edwardian London and given names like Archibald Soper, Irwin Molyneux, William Kramps and, wait for it, Billy, The Milkman. Do we really need a plot after this? Well, in case the answer is yes how about a hypocritical bishop (Jouvet) who gets his kicks denouncing detective fiction (this was in its heyday in 1937, when the film was made, but hardly causing much of a stir in Edwardian England) whilst his cousin (Simon) leads a double life as a timid gardener who moonlights as a best-selling author of detective fiction. When Soper invites himself to lunch at his cousin's London home, the lady of the house (Francoise Rosay) having antagonised the staff to the point of their departure, prepares the meal herself and then, on grounds of rampant snobbery, absents herself for the duration. From this seemingly innocuous move Soper convinces himself that Molyneux has murdered his wife and the scene is set for things to spin in ever widening circles. Still a huge hit in France and shown regularly on TV it has never, to my knowledge, played in England. Seeing it for the first time in 2004 I was completely captivated and drawn into its spiralling plot. 9/10

'Drôle de drame' (1937 - alternative title 'Bizarre, Bizarre'), the second film by French director Marcel Carné, has over time acquired the status of a cult film. Criticized and ignored upon its premiere in the tense years before World War II, it was re-released after the war and enjoyed great success. Since then, every opportunity to re-watch it produces new praise and discoveries of new virtues. Was this film released too early? 'Drôle de drame' uses the French theatrical vaudeville style to create a savory critique of British morals and social tics and combines a parody of detective films with moments of surrealism. Perhaps the fact that Marcel Carné had released 'Les enfants du paradis' and 'Le quai des brumes' in the meantime led the audiences to re-evaluate this earlier movie in his career? Whatever the explanation, 'Drôle de drame', seen 87 years after its filming and first release, provides an opportunity to meet some names that are now legendary, but also a fresh and enjoyable cinematic experience at many moments.

The film is the adaptation of a novel by the British writer J. Storer Clouston, the adaptation being signed by Carné and the eminent poet Jacques Prévert, screenwriter or co-screenwriter of numerous famous French films. The story takes place in London, but it is more of a French version of London, or rather as it would have been represented on a French comedy stage in the first half of the 20th century. We are dealing with serial murders and not very competent detectives from Scotland Yard who solve cases in their sleep, with a Puritan minister and a mysterious crime novelist, with enigmatic disappearances and double identities, with journalists thirsty for sensational news and a milkman in love. The most improbable events follow each other at a rapid pace. Police intrigue and theatrical vaudeville meet in an original mix.

The cast is stellar. Michel Simon appears in a double role alongside Louis Jouvet. The two actors, who were among the superstars of interwar French cinema, did not really get on with each other, but perhaps it was the tension between them that contributed to the quality of some scenes that have become anthological. We can also watch Jean-Louis Barrault, who would become one of the great actors and directors of the French theatre and who was then only 27 years old and dedicated most of his artistic efforts to film, with 5 films in his filmography in each of the years 1936, 1937, 1938. Here he has a secondary, but important and not at all simple, role - a serial killer who also falls in love. Every scene in which he appears is a delight. Satirical arrows at British morals and social formalisms abound. 'Drôle de drame' was and is superb comic entertainment.

In the Victorian London, the botanist Irwin Molyneux (Michel Simon) and his wife Margaret Molyneux (Françoise Rosay) are bankrupted but still keeping the appearance due to the successful crime novels written by Irwin under the pseudonym of Felix Chapel. Their cook has just left the family, when Irwin's snoopy and hypocrite cousin Archibald Soper (Louis Jouvet) that is in campaign against the police stories of Felix Chapel invites himself to have dinner in Irwin's house. Margaret decides to keep the farce of their social position secretly cooking the dinner, while the clumsy Irwin justifies her absence telling the bishop Soper that she had just traveled to the country to meet some friends. However Soper suspects of Irwin and calls the Scotland Yard, assuming that his cousin had poisoned his wife. Irwin and Margaret decide to hide the truth to avoid an exposition of their financial situation, moving to a low-budget hotel in the Chinese neighborhood, getting into trouble.

"Drôle de Drame ou L'Étrange Aventure de Docteur Molyneux" is a hilarious theatrical comedy of farce and mistakes. Most of the characters are hypocrite, greedy, lazy or simply incompetent and the situations they get involved are silly, naive but very funny. In spite of having irrelevant flaws in the plot, this film is a great entertainment. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Família Exótica" ("Exotic Family")

Spoofs are generally not popular with the masses (except when Crosby/Hope or Abbott/Costello or Woody Allen are doing the spoofing) so it's no surprise to discover there exist few box-office viable spoofs of film noir. (I know people will claim Alexander Mackendrick's 1955 The Ladykillers, but this is actually a marvelous spoof of crime caper movies. Otto Heller's photographic style not only shines brightly into every nook and cranny, but the story always goes for the belly laugh rather than the jugular vein). A notable exception is the Marcel Carné 1937 Drole de Drame, in which one of the finest casts ever assembled – Jouvet, Simon, Rosay, Barrault, Aumont, and the lovely Nadine Vogel (who made only four movies, of which this is her debut) wrestle with a delightfully ridiculous plot that manages to get wilder and wilder as it progresses from pugnacious snobbery through blatant hypocrisy to the most ridiculous cop shop misinvestigation ever presented on a big-budget theatre screen. Schuftann's atmospheric, noir photography and Trauner's nightmarishly sprawling sets rival any similar creations from Berlin or Hollywood. The movie is chock full of bizarre touches, but the one that tickled me best was the sleeping journo, most amusingly played by Henri Guisol (who enjoyed quite a career in French who-dun-its and noir).

This unusual and lively satire is a French attempt to do a British screwball comedy and successfully mocks hypocritical society; it's all entertaining due to its splendid cast, especially Michel Simon is a joy to watch.