Le puritain

This French production from the story by Irish playwright, Liam O'Flaherty, is the story of a religious fanatic (played by Jean Louis Barrault)who finds his entire life and philosophy turned topsy-turvy as he falls in love with a girl and kills her in a jealous rage. His search is for peace of mind and a desire to justify the murder of the girl to himself. His mind becomes distraught as he gropes trying to rationalize his deed and his world falls apart around him.

Pierre Frenay is the police inspector who patiently and tirelessly stays on Barrault's trail, without putting him under arrest, though convinced he is the murderer, and waiting for the moment when he feels Barrault will break under the strain of his own religious fanaticism.

This represents an astonishing debut feature by any standards and it is to be lamented that it is all but forgotten now whilst its director Jeff Musso was fated to endure all kinds of filmic frustrations and cinematic conflicts and to finish as he had begun, directing documentaries. It was while sailing to the West Indies to direct one such documentary that he met novelist Liam 0'Flaherty. This encounter proved fortuitous as they were to collaborate on bringing 0'Flaherty's novel 'The Puritan' to the screen. Although originally set in Ireland its theme is international as it deals with the curse of religious fanaticism which is still alas very much with us.

Its distinctly Catholic fanaticism which caused it to be banned in New York and naturally the Irish Free State, is here embodied in the character of Ferriter who murders a woman of easy virtue. His crime represents the ultimate hypocrisy for although supposedly motivated by moral outrage it is in fact a crime of passion rooted in jealousy and sexual repression. He further compounds his hypocrisy by attempting to incriminate her lover whom he regards as his moral and intellectual inferior.

Jean-Louis Barrault is riveting as Ferriter and although extremely theatrical, his posturing self-righteousness certainly struck a chord with audiences at a time when fanaticism was sweeping the world.

In the relationship between Ferriter and Inspector Lavan there is a nod to that of Raskolnikov and Porfiry in 'Crime and Punishment. As in Dostoevsky's classic all that the detective has to do is to bide his time and give the suspect just enough rope.....

It does not exactly require a brilliant detective to deduce that Ferriter is guilty as from their first meeting he is clearly off his rocker. Lavan is played by the immaculate Pierre Fresnay in what could be seen as a prototype for his Commissaire Wens of the early 1940's.

The impact of the film is due in no small measure to these two superlative artistes and there is great support from Alexandre Rignault, Georges Flamant, Jean Tissier and the gorgeous Viviane Romance who has gone blonde in this as a tart with a heart.

Everything is in the director's favour here as he also has the services of art directors Ménessier and Piménoff, cinematographer Curt Courant and composer Jacques Dallin who collaborated on the score with Musso who himself had a musical background.

Considering its great performances, timeless theme and being awarded what was then the highest French accolade, the Prix Louis Delluc, its subsequent obscurity is puzzling. We should at least be grateful that Musso was afforded the chance to make it.

Jean-Louis Barrault (Ferriter) plays a very strange journalist with so-called puritanical beliefs although he may just be covering up his sexual inadequacies. He spends the film trying to justify to himself his action of killing a prostitute and exploring his motivations. He is a nutcase. Police investigator Pierre Fresnay (Lavan) knows there is something very suspicious about this weirdo freak journalist and bides his time whilst acquiring evidence that will allow him to make an arrest.

The problem with the film is that Barrault is completely unlikable and so we have nobody to identify with. He sort of minces around in the film and it doesn't help that he looks similar to Kenneth Williams, the campest of Carry On actors, and also has similar mannerisms - "Ooh, matron..!" He also acts in a confusingly moronic way that continually points the finger of guilt towards himself by vocalizing his dislike of the victim and of prostitutes in general. Even a 3-year-old detective would be able to deduce "Well, he did it".

A pretty dumb film and a bit too stagey, especially at the beginning. The most interesting parts of the film involve friendly hooker Viviane Romance (Molly) but even then, things defy belief. In reality she would have just taken his money and not entertained any further use of her time with him.

The cast and credits which appear at the beginning of the film are bizarre:Pierre Fresnay and Viviane Romance (it takes 50 minutes before the latter appears and her screen presence does not exceed 20 min)are at the top of the bill though they play supporting parts whereas Jean-Louis Barrault who carries the movie upon his shoulders and is present in 95% of the scenes is credited as "supporting".

"Le Puritain " was extremely different from all that was done at the time in France (and French cinema at the time reached peaks which it never surpassed afterward) .Telling the story of a religious fanatic who kills a good time gal because he thinks he has become God's instrument;someone who seems to hate the whole world ,who compares the heathen town to Sodom.It's one of Jean-Louis Barrault's most stunning performances (it might well be his very best ,if we do not count "Les Enfants Du Paradis" considered the best French movie of all time).His feverish look,his total mastery of his art ,from a whisper to a scream (And I mean "scream " for he cries like one possessed )are really awesome.The movie won the Prix Louis Delluc .

Based on a novel by Liam O' Flaherty,the story is supposed to take place in Ireland and it does in the movie although the atmosphere is not really Irish:the Concierge is typically French,and the music you can hear in the low dive is a tango to the tune of an accordion.And Pierre Fresnay is Commissaire Wens one year before he portrays this character.

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