Fortunat (1960)
Directed by Alex Joffé

Film Review

Fortunat is an engaging tragicomic melodrama which presents a realistic and moving picture of life for ordinary folk living in France during the Occupation in WWII.  The film brings together two of France's great acting legends, Michèle Morgan and Bourvil, who, despite their very differing acting styles and personalities, have a startling on-screen chemistry.  They have previously worked together on André Cayatte's Le Miroir à deux faces (1958), another classic of French cinema.  It is under the direction of Morgan's real-life partner, Gérard Oury, that Bourvil would have his greatest screen successes, Le Corniaud (1965) and La Grande vadrouille (1966).   With its moody cinematography, Fortunat vividly evokes the era in which it is set, a period of uncertainty and fear for most French people.  It also combines comedy and drama to great effect, with comic moments often immediately followed by a sudden tragic development.  The devastatingly poignant ending - although almost entirely predictable - is particularly moving, highlighting as it does the class divisions that existed at the time, social barriers that could only be breached by something as cataclysmic as a war.

Film Synopsis

With France under Nazi occupation, a young mother named Juliette finds that her own life is in danger when her husband, an active member of the French Resistance, is captured by the Germans.  Her only hope is to flee with her two children to the Free Zone in the southern part of the country.  In this she is assisted by the resourceful schoolmistress Mademoiselle Massillon and Noël Fortunat, a good-natured poacher.  By passing himself off as Juliette's husband, Fortunat manages to escort the young woman and her offspring across the country without arousing the suspicion of the occupying Germans.

After reaching Toulouse, the poacher is soon living an idyllic life with Juliette and her children.  Untroubled by the Nazis, they get on well with the family of Jews who live next door.  Noël soon begins to like his new life.  He and Juliette may come from completely different worlds but their shared experiences have brought them together and made them the closest of friends.   The happy idyll ends abruptly with the Liberation of France.  As Juliette resumes her former life with her husband, Fortunat is left to return to his old ways, a solitary bachelor...