Miquette et sa mère

This is ,among Clouzot's relatively small filmography (11 movies) ,the most disappointing effort.There's nothing from his magic touch here.Reigning supreme over French suspense movies ("le corbeau" "diaboliques" "le salaire de la peur"),his art becomes ineffective when it comes to bittersweet albeit bland comedies like this one.The good cast (Louis "quai des orfèvres" Jouvet,Bourvil and Danielle Delorme does not make up for this trite story of an ingenue and these light-hearted gallantries .Probably the only Clouzot movie which is not worth watching.

All right, this is not exactly what one is looking for when watching Clouzot's stuff.

But… actors are under control, pace is fast, the story raises many smiles, everybody is doing a very fine job with all the necessary craftsmanship.

All in all, it's probably the weakest of Clouzot's creations, but a very good, pleasant and smiling movie, above the average, as a light hearted comedy, of French (or anywhere else) cinema of the early 50's.

And seriously, how could anybody refuse to watch the trio Jouvet-Fabre-Bourvil?

Henri-Georges Clouzot continues his little sojourn into the unusual, for him, with a frivolous romantic comedy. It's fun, but very frivolous. It reminded me of Ingmar Bergman's own unusual entry in his filmography, Smiles of a Summer Night, a farce where everyone starts with the wrong match and ends with the right one. I might prefer it when Clouzot is doing what he's famous for, but it's obvious that he was more than just the French Master of Suspense.

Miquette (Daniele Delorme) is a shop girl who works for her mother, Madame Grandier (Mireille Perrey). Miquette is besot by dreams of acting, especially after seeing a production of Le Cid and a meeting with the acting troupe's director and lead, Monchablon (Louis Jouvet), her mother dismissive of it all. The young heir to the local barony, Urbain (Bourvil), something of a fop, is smitten with Miquette and wishes to marry her over the objections of his father, the marquis (Saturnin Fabre). In order to dissuade the connection, the marquis arranges another marriage for Urbain but also becomes smitten with Miquette himself upon his first meeting, feeling younger than he has in years.

So sets the stage for Miquette and Urbain to have a falling out, the marquis to steal Miquette away and try and buy her love, Monchablon taking advantage of the situation to have the marquis buy her way into his troupe, Madame Grandier becoming smitten with the world of acting the second she's given an opportunity to join, and Urbain pursuing Miquette both out of spite because he's mad at her for running off with his own father and because he loves her.

It's the sort of overly complicated and overstuffed setup that comedies can mine for laughs with ease. And I think it does it well. The acting is in this space between arch and realistic where everyone's obviously going for laughs but it never feels desperate. There are fun repeated lines, especially from Monchablon who narrates his actions like he's reading stage direction. Plot escalations continue through to the ending with stakes raising in unexpected ways, like Madame Grandier having a gambling problem that could only be fixed by marrying someone rich. I mean, none of this is hard to figure out as the film starts, but the predictability is part of the appeal of farce.

The film also looks really good. Clouzot was never that showy of a director, his visual tastes much more commonly appealing towards clean and efficient rather than self-conscious, and that approach works well in this comedic farce. Never drawing attention from the action but keeping it clear and efficient for the audience, the film is handsomely presented from beginning to end.

Really, it's a minor and frivolous work, but it entertained me consistently through its brief runtime. It wasn't much at the box office in France at the time, necessitating Clouzot to go in a more familiar direction next with Wages of Fear, but Miquette is, I think, worthy of reappraisal. It'll never be considered his best film, nor should it, but it's an entertaining trifle. It has just this side of nothing to say. It's a nice little film that provides consistent smiles with mild ambitions.

It's all plot, moves fast, and makes me smile. I can't ask for much more from a comedy.

Like Hitchcock who directed one comedy in Usa, Clouzot directed that boulevard with an exceptional casting : Jouvet, Bourvil, volcanic Danièle Delorme, ... and the always exceptionaly funny Saturnin Fabre, who has a part all through the movie and at his best. Miquette ... is very pleasant and fast paced, Clouzot could only succeed with this brilliant casting. I know from local villagers that the atmosphere on "les Diaboliques" shooting was tragic, but on Miquette..., Clouzot was happy and smiling (written on local newspapers with pictures), so yes Miquette... is an exception in his filmography. Not to be missed for that poker of actors, and I say it again, Saturnin Fabre.