|
|
|
L'Ordonnance
1933 Romance / Drama
| |
Credits
-
Director: Viktor Tourjansky
-
Script: Boris de Fast, Guy de Maupassant, Jacques Natanson, Viktor Tourjansky
-
Photo: Fédote Bourgasoff, Louis Née
-
Music: René Sylviano
-
Cast: Marcelle Chantal (Hélène),
Jean Worms (Limousin),
George Rigaud (Saint-Albert),
Alexandre Rignault (Philippe),
Fernandel (Etienne),
Paulette Dubost (Marie),
Pierre Darmant (Le Adjutant),
Claude Lehmann (Georges)
-
Country: France
-
Language: French
-
Runtime: 76 min; B&W
-
Aka: The Orderly
|
|
|
|
| |
Summary
Colonel Limousin returns home to find this his young wife has committed suicide in her
bath. After the funeral, he discovers a letter in which the dead woman reveals how
she was driven to take her own life. Some years ago, Limousin met and fell in love
with a woman, Hélène, who was much younger than him. But, soon after
their marriage, Hélène found herself admired by the younger men under Limousin’s
command. One of these becomes her lover. When the Colonel’s servant, Philippe,
discovers that Hélène is having an affair, he intends to use the situation
to his advantage…
Review
L’Ordonnance is something of a cinematic oddity,
a French film that looks quite unlike any French film of its period. It was directed
by Ukrainian born film director Viktor Tourjansky and was based on a short story by Guy
de Maupassant. Tourjansky had previously directed a silent version of the same story
in 1921. The film has some shocking realist touches (notably the horrific suicide
scene) but is pretty much a conventional melodrama, of the kind that was very popular
in the 1920s and 1930s.
What is most striking about this film is its exceptional design and visual presentation.
With its lavish sets and beautiful photography, it is as attractive and atmospheric as
any film made in the early 1930s. Whilst the interior filming has more than a suggestion
of German expressionism (note how brutally disturbing Tourjansky makes the suicide and
attempted rape sequences), the sun-drenched countryside exteriors remind one of the French
impressionists and post-impressionists (Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, among others).
The camera work is exceptional in that it both captures the mood of the protagonists and
conveys a sense of ineluctable doom. The naturalistic, seductively poetic, location
sequences resemble those in Jean Renoir’s 1936 film,
Partie de campagne (which was based on another
Guy de Maupassant story).
It’s a pity that the quality of the direction and cinematography
is not matched by that of the writing and acting. What little dialogue there
is is trite and adds little to what is conveyed through the images – suggesting that this
would have worked far better as a silent film. Then there are the performances,
which are generally characterless and theatrical, making it hard for the spectator to
develop any real sympathy for either Hélène or her cheated husband.
Whoever cast Fernandel in this film made a mistake – not because the comic actor doesn’t
perform well, but rather because he just doesn’t fit in. Even though his character
is pretty well redundant (and could easily have been removed from the script), Fernandel
steals the focus in every one of his scenes, by simple virtue of the fact that he has
more charisma and charm than the rest of the cast put together. His comic interludes
clearly give the film more popular appeal, but they badly undermine its artistic credibility
and dramatic impact.
© James Travers 2007
|
|
|
|
|
