O Vigarista

In this film, Gabin plays a character very close to the ones he had in UN SINGE EN HIVER and LE DRAPEAU NOIR FLOTTE SUR LA MARMITE. A more or less fake sailor, a man who impersonates a character whom he has never been, a kind of dreamer. This was a manufactured product for Gabin and made by Audiard.

... but it never seems to come. The script is literate, the actors are the cream of French cinema--Gabin, Presle, Brunoy, Desailly, Dalban--the direction is assured (Delannoy directed some of my very favourite films, such as Maigret tend une piege). But the last ounce of pleasure seems to be missing. The gambler who wins at the most unlikely times is a hard story to bring off, and the casino scenes go nowhere. Filmmaking by rote. Things pick up when the boat ties up at the little town and Presle can meet her love interest, and Gabin his, but the film has suffered.

About ten years before, Gabin and Brunoy teamed up for La Marie du port, and they then looked like a romantic pair. Carne showed them in their best light, it was another Simenon story, yet still the spark failed to ignite. That's life.

Saw this 8/26/15 in an unsubtitled version in French. Gabin offers a memorable take on aging aristocracy in a film released the same year as "Breathless". But where Godard's movie delights in the tacky, demotic, and the just plain sloppy, Gabin's baron never loses sight of who he is and what he stands for, whether mixing with cunning rustics after his boat breaks down (thus the title) or winning at the tables at Deauville. The baron is everything Melville's Bob Le Flambeur dreams of becoming at a similar stage of life. The machinery of the script hums along nicely, and it would be hard to ask for a more able cast – Micheline Presle, Blanchette Brunoy, Jean Desailly, with the operation ably helmed by Jean Delannoy. The version I saw was clear, the photography evocative of a time and place long gone. Then again, that last comment applies to every aspect of the movie, a cinematic artifact I am grateful to have seen. Jean Gabin's Hollywood phase did not last too long, but it did give us his English language performance as Bobo in 1942's "Moontide". Micheline Presle made an impression on me when I saw her in "Les Jeux Sont Faits" (1947), scripted by Jean-Paul Sartre and directed by Delannoy.

This is a film that can be savoured for its elegance, sophistication and Gallic charm. Adapted from a story of the prodigious Georges Simenon with dialogue by the ubiquitous Michel Audiard starring the impeccable Jean Gabin in the title role. He is a gentleman gambler who is tempted to settle down with cafe owner Maria, played sympathetically by Blanchette Brunoy but finds the promise of further adventures elsewhere more exciting. Micheline Presle and Jean Desailly are excellent but the latter has a pretty thankless part. Sure to have been disparaged by the New Ripple brigade this film of Jean Delannoy is a very pleasant way of spending an hour and a half.

Gabin is unequaled in uttering pleasantly some great comic lines.

"Le Baron ..." has important literary sources:Druon and Simenon.The things that make this film worth watching are:(1)the rich cast (Gabin,of course,but also Mrs. Presle , Mrs. Blanchette Brunoy and Desailly);(2)the script (Druon);(3)the skilled directing (Jean Delannoy ).The movie is supple and sympathetic;it has at least four attractive performances (from Gabin,Micheline Presle, Blanchette Brunoy and Desailly).Gabin has verve,mobility,charm,and acts gaily.He was a full-fledged man in his roles from '55-'57,and now,almost suddenly,in '60,our beloved Gabin is an old-timer already.He is not aristocratic,as Fresnay, Stroheim, Jouvet were,but a very acute,mirthful oldster.(In fact,Gabin was only 56 years old in this movie.)

Mrs. Presle does a part a la Mrs. Taylor;it is not too original,but it is OK.

I knew Desailly from La Peau Douce .

Was Gabin the best choice for a Baron?It is certain that he made the role on his own hand.I guess Fresnay would have made a better character,as he was much more suited to perform an aristocrat.If the choice was mine,I would have chosen another actor to play a baron.(Fresnay was alive when this movie was shot.)But the movie uses the premise that a Baron does not have to look as a Baron.I grant that it is better to have this movie WITH Gabin as a baron,than not to have this Gabin movie at all.The man is not a miscast as Baron Jérôme Napoléon Antoine.He is not necessarily a Baron,but,instead,a very funny and cheerful and pleasing to watch Gabin,who took the opportunity to deliver some tasteful fun,and this is more interesting than any baron on Earth...

"Le Baron ..." is a well-written and well-done comedy,intensely funny,and of an excellent taste (despite the presence of the inevitable,it seems,"popular element":some unkempt rednecks and cunning rustics,some grotesque rusticity,the rural humor,some ruses,things that I abhor,but which are kept,here,within the due limits and do not become stupid).

As an art object "Le Baron ..." is sprightly,intelligent, fluid,well-conceived.No trace of stiffness.

One more word;who was Druon when this movie was released?Well,in '59 appeared La Louve De France /Les Rois Maudits, V,and in '60:Le Lis et Le Lion /Les Rois Maudits, VI.

The entire cast,plus the director Jean Delannoy ,plus the writer:everyone has a merit here,and everyone masters his job.

I intensely recommend this well-thought,lucid and simple comedy,that is light and also cruel,unconventional and quite realistic.There is more than just a bit of bitterness.It is a rare science,to be simultaneously light and bitter.