Chotard et Cie (1932)
Directed by Jean Renoir

Film Review

Immediately after Boudu sauvé des eaux (1932), Jean Renoir accepted a commission from Roger Ferdinand to film a screen adaptation of his play Chotard et Cie.  One of Renoir's most boisterous comedies, the film was a continuation of the theme of acceptance and rejection of bourgeois order that had run through much of the director's previous films and culminated in his adaptation of Madame Bovary (1933).  With its humorous portrayal of Provençal life, Chotard et Cie feels more typical of Marcel Pagnol than Renoir and is a film that is easily overlooked (even Renoir himself forgot he had made it in later years).  Renoir's penchant for experimentation is apparent in his confident use of long tracking shots, such as the one that opens the film and slowly draws us into its protagonist's busy world.  For a film of this era, the camera is surprising mobile, and this gives it a dynamism that brings to life a somewhat lacklustre play.

Although cheaply made and lacking Renoir's inspired touch, the film is an amiable satire that mocks, with an acid wit, the pretensions of both the nouveaux riches and artistically minded.  Charpin (an actor beloved by Pagnol and a frequent habitué of his films) is at his comedic best, revelling in the role of a philistinic snob who is clearly meant to be updated version of Molière's Bourgeois Gentilhomme.  The order that Charpin's character represents (founded on honest commerce and hard work) is threatened when the opportunity of easy social advancement presents itself, via a prize-winning future son-in-law.  The chaos that ensues is reversed when the gifted writer exchanges art for commerce and opts for trading apples and potatoes rather than plundering his imagination in bleak solitude.  "It takes all sorts to make a world" is the film's wise summation, although Renoir's obvious lack of engagement with his subject prevents it from having the punch it merits.

Film Synopsis

François Chotard runs a successful grocery business in a small village in the south of France.  His daughter Reine has two suitors - a young police officer and daydreaming poet named Julien Collinet - but Chotard is holding out for a more suitable son-in-law.  Finally, the grocer yields and gives his consent for his daughter to marry the poet, but only after he has proven his worth by working for him in the family business.  Alas, Julien has no head for business and does his best to ruin his prospective father-in-law.  Exasperated, Chotard drives Julien away and gives his rival a chance to claim his daughter's hand in marriage.  A short while later, Julien's stock suddenly increases in value when Chotard learns that he has won the Prix Goncourt, France's highest literary award.  Seizing at once an opportunity to improve his standing in the community, Chotard neglects his business and coerces Julien into writing ten novels a year.  Unable to work under such conditions, the poet rebels and takes charge of the grocer's business.