Chanson d'Armor (1934)
Directed by Jean Epstein

Film Review

Chanson d'Armor (a.k.a. Chanson d'Ar-Mor) is one of a number of films that avant garde director Jean Epstein made in the latter half of his career celebrating his adopted homeland of Brittany (others include Finis terrae (1929) and Le Tempestaire (1947)).  It is a short film commissioned by Ouest-Éclair, France's most important regional newspaper (later to be renamed Ouest France) and has the distinction of being the first film in which the dialogue is entirely spoken in the Breton language.  Chanson d'Armor was conceived as a promotional film, intended to raise the profile of Brittany and give a boost to the local tourist industry.  As well as showcasing the untamed beauty of the Breton landscape, it also had to depict Breton customs (including traditional costumes and music), whilst, at the same time, taking care to portray Brittany as a modern, vibrant locale, not a provincial backwater stuck in the past.  It was a virtually impossible brief to fulfil but Epstein made a reasonable stab at it, although the end result clearly lacks the personal touch of the films he made off his own bat.

Epstein was obliged to cast Yvon le Mar'hadour in the lead role, not because he was an accomplished actor but because he was a popular Breton singer.  Mar'hadour's lack of acting skill is painfully evident throughout the film, but his rugged features go well with the raw Breton landscape and his rendition of various Breton songs does add to the film's bleak lyricism, rather than being a tacky embellishment.  With its trite and unconvincing plot, the film can hardly help resembling the cinematic equivalent of a picture postcard, offering a mostly hackneyed and out-dated view of Brittany without really evoking the true spirit of the region.  This is presumably how the Breton tourist industry wanted the outside world to imagine the region, a kind of olde worlde theme park where the merry locals spent most of their time dancing, singing or participating in street processions, the women universally arrayed in Bigouden headdresses and aprons, the men in black hats and waistcoats.  It is a hideously stereotypical representation that Brittany has been living down ever since.

Epstein's obvious love of the Breton landscape and its people somehow carried him through this farrago of caricature and cliché, and whilst the film is not one of his best it is not without charm.  Most impressive are the scenes in the later half of the film depicting Jean-Marie's ill-fated excursion to sea as a fisherman and then his final tragic encounter with Rozen.  It is here that the landscape assumes prominence in the drama, particularly the sea, which becomes a living entity, powerful, mysterious, unforgiving.  The final sequence is one of the most powerful and eerily evocative to be found in any of Epstein's films, a shot of rolling waves imposed over Jean-Marie as he sings a heartbreaking lament to his beloved.  You'd almost swear the sea was in mourning.

Film Synopsis

A hopeless scholar, Jean-Marie is sent away from his Catholic boarding school and must return to the farm in the country run by his parents.  Preferring instead the freedom of the open road, he scrapes a living by singing songs in the street.  One day, his path crosses that of Rozen, the attractive daughter of as rich chatelain.  The two young people cannot help falling in love, even though Rozen is already engaged to another, wealthier man.  Realising the futility of his love, Jean-Marie leaves to follow the life of a fisherman, but on his first fishing expedition an accident happens which leads his fellow sailors to believe he is bad luck...