L'Acrobate (1941)
Directed by Jean Boyer

Film Review

In the dark days of the Nazi Occupation of France, director Jean Boyer could always be relied upon to raise a smile with his fanciful comedies, as L'Acrobate amply demonstrates.  Over the previous decade, Boyer had notched up several hits -  Un mauvais garçon (1936), Prends la route (1936), Circonstances atténuantes (1939) - and was France's leading director in the musical-comedy genre.  In June 1941 Boyer delivered his first Occupation era comedy, one that marked the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration with the comic genius Fernandel.

After a string of successes in the 1930s, Fernandel had emerged as the most popular comic actor of his time and starred in no fewer than thirteen films during the Occupation (including three made by the German-run company Continental).  After L'Acrobate, Fernandel worked with Boyer on La Bonne Étoile (1942) and seven further films, ending with Relaxe-toi chérie (1964), the director's swansong.  

One of Fernandel's more enjoyable comedies of this era, L'Acrobate is an amiable little farce that gives the horse-faced comedian free rein to lift the spirits of a war-weary audience, aided and abetted by another comedy legend, Jean Tissier, and a host of less well-known but very capable performers (Pierre Labry, Jean Brochard, Marcel Carpentier, etc.).  As well as being subjected to innumerable cold showers (this being the way they cure mental disorders in France, apparently), Fernandel suffers the ultimate indignity of being humiliated as an unwilling acrobat in a circus act.

Flying through the air with the greatest of ease is clearly not something that features prominently on Fernandel's CV, but making us laugh hysterically as he tumbles from the high wire and struggles to free himself from the safety net is a fair substitute.  Fernandel would gravitate to more serious fare in later years (gaining respect as a serious actor as he did so), but here, mid-career, he is at his most accomplished as a comedic performer.  L'Acrobate may not be his best or most memorable film, but it is one where his gift for making people laugh is put to best use, and in those grim years of the Occupation this was just the medicine that France needed.

Film Synopsis

Ernest Sauce is the maître d' of the up-market restaurant Cochon d'argent.  One evening, when a customer is unable to pay his bill, Ernest drags him to the nearest police station but is sent away with a flea in his ear when it is discovered that the man has lost his memory.  Ernest immediately sees a way out of his present worries - by pretending to be an amnesiac he will be able to rid himself both of his annoying girlfriend and his pestilential employer.  Admitted to an asylum, Ernest soon sees the downside of his plan and is grateful when a complete stranger turns up to claim him as a relative...