Le bon Dieu sans confession

....a resigned man !" the son says to his bourgeois father .How not to think of Autant-Lara 's previous masterpiece "Douce" (1943)where the old dowager (Marguerite Moreno)consoled the Poor: "patience and resignation" Paul Vialar's novel "MOnsieur Dupont Est Mort" takes place during M.Dupont 's funeral.Behind the coffin car,all these who have known him,wife,children,-platonic-lover,associate ,remembers...Monsieur Dupont ,who used to look as if the butter wouldn't melt in his mouth ,was a good man .He was a bastard too.

The movie was faithful to the novel;but as Danielle Darrieux played the lover ,her part needed developing.In the book ,each character had a chapter.In the movie,Darrieux's prominent part throws the film off balance :the parts of the son -probably the hardest scene of the movie- and the daughter suffered accordingly.

This is a good Claude Autant-Lara effort though;the construction of the film is clever ,sometimes flouts chronology,which makes sense ,for the flashbacks come from different persons.All these memories which come back to haunt them,they resurface as the funeral procession is slowly getting to the church.Autant-Lara spares us the ceremony and his final message is a message of hope: the three young people hand in hand might represent a hope for a better future ,recalling Fabien and Irene when they were leaving the aristocrats' house ,with Christmas carols everywhere ,in "Douce" .

At the time, the movie was slagged off and it was Autant-Lara's poorest box office since the Liberation.

Although it cannot be mentioned in the same breath as the director's greatest achievements , "le Bon dieu sans confession" (butter wouldn't melt in his/her mouth ) has worn remarkably well. Its construction makes dizzy : the movie looks like a giant jigsaw puzzle , which can confuse the viewer : some of its pieces are only added in the last part ;Two thirds are made of flashbacks , and the story is never linear , flouting chronology .

As always in Autant-Lara's works,the actors are masterfully directed :Danielle Darrieux is not the romantic woman who married the wrong man ,but a selfish calculating one ;Henri Vilbert ,playing the not-so-handsome lover and Ivan Desny,the abandoned husband are cast against type and it works.

But it may well be the young generation who walks off with the honors: Claude Laydu ,as the idealist son who shows the director's anticlerical side ,and isabelle Pia ,who makes her great scene count , are Autant-Lara's hope against hope :"do you think that a child can be happy when he sees that his father does not love his mother?"Their last scene 's soundtrack was to be a working sound symphony ,but the producer had it replaced by JS Bach music .

In spite of his infamous last years, Autant-Lara's Occupation and post-war works are to be considered French finest hour.