Les Fruits de l'été (1955)
Directed by Raymond Bernard

Film Review

Raymond Bernard concluded his long and distinguished filmmaking career with a number of fairly inconsequential crowdpleasers which all pale into insignificance when compared with his earlier cinematic achievements.  Les Fruits de l'été, one of Bernard's later comedies, looks more like something you would expect Ernst Lubitsch or Billy Wilder to knock out in one of his less inspired moments, and it is only the presence of Edwige Feuillère, as delectable as ever in the lead role, that prevents it from being the most facile kind of French farce.  Feuillère was not only a supremely gifted dramatic actress (reputedly as formidable on stage as she was on the screen), she was also a natural comedienne, and the film, admittedly not one of Bernard's best, plays to her strengths as a comic actress.  By this time, Feuillère had developed a close rapport with the director, having worked with him on a number of other films - Marthe Richard, au service de la France (1937), J'étais une aventurière (1938) and Le Cap de l'Espérance (1951).

Les Fruits de l'été may have been based on a novel by Philippe Hériat, but it looks like an all-too-obvious attempt to mimic the kind of lively, quick-fire comedy that was being churned out in Hollywood around this time.  Beginning with a near approximation to a bacchanal orgy, with a hoard of loud, with-it teenagers dragging themselves up for some weird beauty parade (complete with unconvincing extra-terrestrial), the film initially impresses as an all-too desperate attempt by its director (now in his mid-sixties) to move with the times.  Thankfully, things soon settle down and with Edwige Feuillère finally in command we are able to enjoy a typically French comedy about a bourgeois couple going to extreme lengths to save their face, if not their honour, when their daughter finds herself in the family way with no intention of starting a family.

Never one to steer clear of controversial subject matter (the previous year had seen Feuillère romantically involved with a boy barely out of short trousers, in Claude Autant-Lara's Le Blé en herbe), the lead actress appears alarmingly at ease in the role of a woman willing to claim her daughter's unborn child as her own.  The fun begins when Feuillère sets about trying to reawaken her estranged husband's interest in her, with hilarious results.  Inexplicably, Henri Guisol proves impervious to her obvious charms (which are virtually off the Richter scale of seductive power) and a sedate little comedy takes on the character of a vigorous Feydeau farce as the smouldering Feuillère goes to increasingly desperate lengths to lure her reluctant victim into bed.  (Quaintly, Feydeau's grandson Alain pops up at one point in the simmering imbroglio).

Les Fruits de l'été is hardly the most memorable of Raymond Bernard's films and at 105 minutes it is a tad overlong, but a firecracker turn from its feisty lead actress prevents the well-mannered humour from ever turning stale.  It's not the most sophisticated comedy that Edwige Feuillère put her name to and there are absolutely no surprises on the plot front (the title pretty well gives away the ending), but Raymond Bernard brings a surprising lightness of touch to his direction and ekes out as much mirth as the film's second-rate premise will permit.  Veteran comediennes Pauline Carton and Jeanne Fusier-Gir may have a minor role in the proceedings but their eccentric presence adds greatly to the film's enjoyment value, although the unlikely pairing of Feuillère and Guisol (as vivid a fire-and-ice match as you can imagine) is ultimately what makes the film such a treat.

Film Synopsis

Edouard Gravières finds that his new appointment as High Commissioner for Delinquency may be jeopardised when he sees the kind of wild lifestyle his 18-year-old daughter Juliette is leading.  Naturally, he puts the blame on his wife Sabine, who has been forced to bring up the girl by herself after Edouard walked out on her some years ago to advance his career as a diplomat.  If Sabine hadn't been so preoccupied with her antiques business Juliette may have turned out a more respectable young woman, instead of a precocious miss who throws rowdy parties, encouraged by her mother.  Hoping it is not too late to make a reformed character of Juliette, Edouard coerces Sabine into engaging a prim private tutor to improve his daughter's education and manners.

The tutor sees nothing wrong in Juliette continuing to see her boyfriend Claude, and she even becomes complicit in their blossoming teen romance.  The result is that Juliette becomes pregnant and her decision not to marry Claude comes as an even greater shock to her mother.  Fearing how her husband will react to this cataclysmic news, Sabine offers her daughter two options: either she marries Claude or she hands over her baby to her after it is born.  Juliette opts for the latter course, leaving Sabine with the problem of convincing Edouard that the child is his.  Getting her estranged husband into bed with her proves to be much harder than she imagined.  Even when she follows him to Munich Fate seems determined to keep them apart...