Monsieur des Lourdines (1943)
Directed by Pierre de Hérain

Film Review

Monsieur des Lourdines exemplifies the kind of rural melodrama that was massively popular in France throughout the 1930s and 40s, thanks partly to the success of Marcel Pagnol's slices of Provençal life, which began with his famous Trilogie de Marseille.  It is by no means the best example of its genre, and by comparison with Pagnol's films it can hardly help looking stilted and contrived.  Its main interest today is that it evokes, with an almost chilling power, the ethos of the Vichy régime at the time of the Occupation, which is succinctly encapsulated in the motto of puppet prime minister Maréchal Pétain: Travail, famille, patrie.

Having watched the film, it comes as no surprise to learn that it was in fact directed by a relative of Pétain, namely his son-in-law Pierre de Hérain (the first of five films he made), and was adapted from a novel by one of the most prominent collaborators of the Occupation, Alphonse de Chateaubriant.  The latter won the prix Goncourt (France's highest literary award) when he first published the novel in 1911, but was disgraced after the war and condemned to death (he escaped the sentence by hiding in a Tyrolean monastery until his death in 1951).  Chateaubriant's modern retelling of the Prodigal Son certainly chimed with Pétainist ideology, which sought to instil new values of patriotism, hard work and family loyalty into the French people after the apparent failure of the Third French Republic.

In part because of its Pétainist associations, but also because it represents a kind of melodrama that now feels painfully outdated, Monsieur des Lourdines is not a comfortable film to watch.  The pace is lethargic, the script dull, the mise-en-scène at best uninspired and the performances are more likely to send you to sleep than grab your attention.  Only Germaine Dermoz's captivating turn as the protagonist's mother rings true and her charismatic presence alone makes the film worth watching.  By contrast, Raymond Rouleau's flaccid, expressionless performance does the film no favours at all and you wonder why he was one of the most popular actors of this era. 

Artistically, the only areas where the film does impress is its cinematography and camerawork.  Together, these bring an unremitting aura of stifling oppression to the latter half of the film which effectively evokes the weight of the personal tragedies bearing down on the protagonists as fate and human frailty do their worst.  There is a genuine sense of relief when this crushing burden is lifted as the wayward son learns the error of his ways and becomes a good little Pétainist.  Vichy propaganda doesn't come much more blatant than this.

Film Synopsis

Dying of boredom at his family estate in the country, Anthime des Lourdines flees to Paris to live the life of a reckless prodigal.  In doing so, he gets himself into debt as he pursues an ill-judged love affair and his parents must sell off a large part of their estate to prevent him from being sent to prison.  Disillusioned with city life, Anthime returns to the country, hoping to make amends.  He arrives too late to prevent his aged mother from dying of a broken heart...