L'Homme du Niger (1940)
Directed by Jacques de Baroncelli

Film Review

The sickening stench of colonialist paternalism can be found in several French films of the 1930s but nowhere is it more evident than in Jacques de Baroncelli's creaking melodrama L'Homme du Niger, a film that today would be judged blatantly racist in its depiction of white Europeans selflessly sacrificing themselves to civilise Africa's ungrateful savage hoards.  It is a film that reeks of western white superiority, a propaganda piece for French colonialism in the last days of the Third French Republic, but this is not its most objectionable shortcoming.  The main reason why the film is so hard to stomach is that it serves up the most ludicrously contrived plot and expects the audience to sympathise with characters that are as convincing as a collection of hand-torn cardboard cut-outs.

L'Homme du Niger was one of the late offerings from Jacques de Baroncelli, a remarkably prolific film director who was a successful journalist before he started churning out films as early as 1915.  Few film critics would take Baroncelli seriously and he barely figures in most histories of French cinema, but his films - mostly shallow literary adaptations and overblown melodramas - were often hugely popular with the cinema-going public.  L'Homme du Niger is one of Baroncelli's more up-market films, boasting an impressive cast that includes two of the most revered actors of the 1930s - Victor Francen and Harry Baur - and a script by the celebrated writer Joseph Kessel, many of whose novels would be adapted for cinema (notably Belle de Jour by Luis Buñuel and L'Armée des ombres by Jean-Pierre Melville).

Baroncelli was almost pathologically sub-mediocre when it came to directing actors but he did have some visual flair and a particular penchant for directing crowd scenes and action sequences.  It is in the location scenes of L'Homme du Niger that Baroncelli comes into his own, clearly relishing the challenge of directing a cast of several hundred, if not thousands (mostly unpaid African natives).  The riot at the end of film is masterfully executed and would not disgrace a Hollywood blockbuster.  The problem is that, apart from these rare occasions where Baroncelli can have a go at pretending to be Cecil B. DeMille, he appears totally uninterested in the subject.  Most of the film consists of dull, over-long scenes in which actors spew pages of dialogue at each other, unsure whether they are on camera or on the stage.  Several scenes look as if no director went anywhere near them - the framing of shots, the quality of the acting, the jerky editing just make the film look cheap and amateurish.  It is hard to believe but this cinematic abomination was entered in the first ever Festival de Cannes in September 1939 - the one that ended up being cancelled owing to the small matter of WWII breaking out (or maybe Divine Providence was just showing good taste).

The one bright spot in this dim fiasco is Harry Baur's attention-grabbing presence - an oasis of talent in a desert of mediocrity.  With just a handful of films to go before brutal treatment at the hands of the Gestapo cut short his career, Baur was still very much a force to be reckoned with and his intensely compassionate portrayal of a committed medical man is the one thing that makes Baroncelli's film worth watching.  One scene that leaves a lasting impression is the one in which Baur diagnoses Francen with leprosy - it is not hard to see who is the superior actor as Baur appears eaten up with remorse whilst his co-star merely switches on the ham generator.  L'Homme du Niger is a lousy film but it does have some moments that steal your admiration, albeit nor for long.

Film Synopsis

Breval, the commander of a French garrison in the Sudan, persuades the politician François Mourrier of the necessity to construct a dam across the River Niger to improve farming conditions in the region.  During Mourrier's visit, his daughter Danielle finds herself attracted to both Breval and his lieutenant, Parent.  It is Breval who ends up getting engaged to Danielle, but when he discovers he has contracted leprosy he goes into hiding, leaving Danielle to marry Parent.  Treated by the dedicated surgeon Bourdet, Breval gradually recovers from his illness, but, once cured, he finds he hasn't the heart take Danielle away from his lieutenant.  As Breval's dream project gets underway, an agitator opposed to the dam's construction instigates a full-scale riot...