Le bal

I'm apartment/cat-sitting for friends and they have the original poster for this film hanging in their guestroom. The poster is HUGE, measuring about 7 feet X 5 1/2 feet. It features a man standing on one of the many bridges that cross the Seine in Paris. He's sadly tossing sealed envelopes off the bridge and they are trailing down to the water. They look like hundreds of invitations that were never sent. You can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. It has made me very curious about this film so that's why I looked it up on IMDb! I plan to take a photo of the poster and add it to this site for all to see. I'm sure it will enhance the background of this film.

An absolute delight. Germaine Dermoz and André Lefaur are a hoot as the lovable husband and wife who are made rich and foolish when some old shares suddenly come good. Dermoz's face flickers amusingly through every moment as her social hopes rise and fall and she is distracted by a romantic flirtation. But when is Danielle Darrieux ever not the star! Here she is, a fifteen year-old in her first ever film, blissfully spoilt by her parents, spiritedly singing, and plonking her way through the piano at the behest of the mad piano-teaching cousin. The build-up to the big ball as the musicians and waiters arrive is such fun even as we cringe. Utterly enjoyable from beginning to end.

The first user wrote about the poster,so I'm going to write about the movie itself.

It's a small gem,based on a story by Irene Nemirovski,and it really deserves to be watched.

First of all ,it is Danielle Darrieux's debut :she was not yet 14 then!Little did one know she would enjoy such a brilliant career ,and to this day ,the longest ever in France :I saw her ,a few months ago,in "Pièce Montée" (2010!! 80 years after "Le Bal" ) in which she stole the show from her co-stars ! Darrieux is still a gamine,but she rises to the occasion .

This is a marvelous satire: two middle-class notions dealers live happily with their Darling girl;the depiction of this cozy life is exquisite:dad dipping his croissants in his coffee,the family having lunch in the restaurant on Sunday (chicken is the obligatory dish),the piano lesson with sour-tempered cousin ,an old maid.

But a inheritance turns these nice people into snob Nouveaux Riches;although the aristocracy invites them,the 'Tout-Paris ' laughs behind their back;for the counts,dukes,ministers ,ambassadors et al ,they are nothing but a laughing stock .

They do not realize it ,and they think they are part of the chic world: Madame wants to flirt again and although she tells her daughter she's too young to attend the society parties ,she 's actually afraid the handsome earl she gets a crush on might discover she has already a fourteen-year old daughter.Monsieur uses the subjunctive imperfect and wears a monocle.

They invite their would be new friends for a ball (hence the title),in their desirable new mansion ("it looks like a railway station" says the cousin),but their daughter,sick and tired of being forgotten by her once loving parents,throws the invitations into the Seine.

The last sequences climax the movie,as the two snobs are waiting for their 200 guests who never show up .All the servants and the musicians they hired to impress the high society ,all they try to do backfires on them and the husband winds up ,dancing with the old broke cousin ,to a popular tune.

In its form,this comedy can be considered a musical and Darrieux herself sings several old-fashioned but charming tunes such as " C'est Le Dimanche " ;a little Freudian ,she declares "I'd like to marry a man like you,dad".And she proves that "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings comes forth truth".

Very funny!