L'Auberge rouge

Inspired by the 'bloodthirsty inn of Peyrebeille' this grim and grisly tale has been transformed by Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost into a comic gem. The humour is quintessentially Voltairean and enables director Claude Autant-Lara to have another dig at the Catholic Church which is here represented by the monk of Fernandel.

Although he and Autant-Lara had previously worked together on 'Fric-Frac' he was not the director's first choice for the role of the monk but was forced upon him by the producer with a view to box-office returns. As it happened the film only fared reasonably well and Fernandel was to be on much safer ground the following year as Don Camillo which proved predictably popular.

This was a far from happy experience for Fernandel both on religious grounds and his tendency to hog the limelight being severely limited by the strong presence of Francoise Rosay and Julien Carrette. Despite the tensions all three artistes give superlative performances and the scene of the confessional through a chesnut grill between Fernandel and Rosay is utterly priceless. Although Fernandel vowed never again to make an 'art' film, this role undoubtedly aided his transition from vaudevillian to 'serious' actor.

The trio of leading players together with the beautifully observed 'minor' characters, excellent art direction by Max Douy and a suitably gruesome chanson by René Cloerec given a characterful rendition by Yves Montand, all combine to make this piece an indisputable classic of world cinema.

Best to leave it with the observation of French critic Raymond Durgnat: "perhaps.....the whole world is a red inn of which God is the landlord."

This is a fantastic, and fantastically one-off, creepy little comedy that I'd never even heard of before but now wish everyone could see. A desolate, snow-bound 19th century inn lures passing travellers to their doom until a monk and his apprentice happen by to take shelter for the night.

As another reviewer here pointed out, it's very much cut from the same cloth as Arsenic And Old Lace, Kind Hearts And Coronets or maybe even Murder By Death. If you like any of those, you'll probably find something to like in this too, with the added bonus of all that snow and eerie atmosphere.

It strikes me once again how French cinema was so far ahead of perhaps every other country in the 1950s in terms of freedom of speech and a grown-up worldview. During the years of the Hays Code censorship, Hollywood became forcibly infantilized and incapable of addressing religion, sex and the realities of life in general in any kind of adult manner whatsoever. This movie feels much more like one of Grimm's original fairy tales than the Disney animated version that would have been made in America at the same time.

The subtitles in the copy I saw were very poor, and let down much of the comic delivery. This would be an ideal candidate for a Criterion restoration and release.

French Best Humorist Fernandel was at His peak when he made this movie in 1951..he hated it and never spoke again to its Director Autant-Lara .. The Movie was a Smash but you can easily understand Fernandel's reaction..he is clearly upstaged by the much interesting couple of killers played by Rosay and Carette..The Movie is based on a true story and could be a very good thriller .

As dark comedies go, this is one of the best I have ever watched. At its heart, sublime performances by Fernandel, Carette, Rosay and the strapping black servant, Lud Germain.

Claude Autant-Lara directs with considerable grace and tact a film with a subject matter that could easily be mishandled and overdone.

The script is the result of inspired collaboration by Aurenche, Bost and Autant-Lara, and it is full of barbed remarks and sharp one-liners, with Catholic priest Fernandel in an unenviable position, after hearing a confession from Rosay that he must keep secret in line with his vows but which he knows can only lead to his own demise, and the demise of all guests at the hostel, if he does nothing to prevent the hostel owners' murderous plans.

In the process, he is on a balancing act between serving God and saving his skin. With a performance of this caliber, it is no wonder that the following year he landed the lead in THE LITTLE WORLD OF DON CAMILLO, and is probably best remembered for that role.

Photography is outstanding, mainly indoors but with very effective outdoor sequence reliefs. Action sequences are well choreographed, and dovetail quite gracefully and cleverly.

Strongly recommended.

"L'Auberge rouge" has recently been restored,and the copy I saw was wonderful.The pictures are glittering black and white .

The subject was not new:the inn where you take your life in your hands when you enter ;such a sinister place was a permanent feature of the FRench melodramas of the nineteenth century.After all ,Hichcock's "psycho" belongs to THAT tradition too,as the Eagles' song "Hotel California" or horror farce "Motel Hell" do.

The precedent user wrote that Fernandel and Autant-Lara were at odds during the filming but I do not think that's because he's upstaged by Carette and Françoise Rosay.Actually "l'auberge rouge" was Autant-Lara at his most anti-clerical:the scene when Rosay and Fernandel use a "GRille à Chataignes" (chesnuts grate?) as a confessional grille is sheer genius;many of the scenes may have inspired Luis Bunuel for "la Voie Lactée" and particularly "Phantom of LIberty" a whole segment of which features an inn,monks and vicious things.

The problem lies in the fact that such an admirable actor as Fernandel did not fit Autant-Lara's bill (or fitted the bill too well).Fernandel 's acting is so natural,so strong that he throws the movie off balance.He has an obvious tendency to go in the opposite way:his monk is full of joie de vivre ,of bonhomie .Whatever we may think of religion,it's impossible not to side with him.

Black humor is everywhere:from the dead body hidden inside a snowman to the travelers' horrible fate -which I will not reveal of course-,from a monkey lost in the snow arrested by the gendarmes to Rosay gently warning her guests about to leave her place:"you'll find the convent easily!You cannot get the wrong way! on the right,you can hear the wolves howl,and on the left you can hear the torrent flowing:it's the precipice!"

The snowy landscapes (amazing studio work) are dazzling.

Autant-Lara's anti-clericalism (already present in "douce" and "le diable au corps" ) which came to the fore in "l'auberge rouge" muted in the sixties: "Tu ne tueras point" ,his accursed work,showed a young man refusing to be drafted because of his religious beliefs;and "Le Franciscain de Bourges" was the story of a priest, living like a saint in the Nazi hell.