Jean de la Lune (1931) User Reviews

Petit Choux

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 27 August 2009]

In French un petite choux - literally a small cabbage - is used as an endearment but I use it here to designate a minor film from journeyman director Jean Choux who turned out around thirty bread-and-butter movies and was here more or less filming a stage play by Marcel Archard which had enjoyed a modest success. Of the two, writer and director, Archard enjoyed the more distinguished career, chalking up several successes on both stage and screen. As Sound took its first tentative steps in French Cinema (and this was made in 1931) it was something of the norm to turn to the stage for material - think Marius, Fanny, etc - and this story of a fickle girl, Marcelline, who can't stop flirting even after marrying the eponymous florist, Jean de la lune, may well have been much worse if it hadn't had the benefit of Madeleine Renaud, a great now almost unknown actress who peaked in the thirties and forties, as Marcelline and Michel Simon an equally great actor, on the threshold of international recognition as the eponymous Boudu in Renoir's masterpiece. There was a third well-known French actor in the cast but Jean-Pierre Aumont wasn't really in the same class despite appearing in classics like Carne's Hotel du Nord and several Hollywood films. On balance a fascinating curio.

For Michel Simon's fans

[dbdumonteil · 24 September 2006]

When the talkies era began,most of FRench directors contented themselves with filming stage productions.The only difference was that the audience was not here .And the leads who were at the time also stage actors (there 's a lot of French contemporary actors ,some of them very famous,who have never played on stage "live") were everything.Michel Simon makes it all worthwhile,supported by a fine actress Madeleine Renaud.But the play is not that much exciting and some viewers may yawn their head off.

Jean Choux did a better job with "Un Chien Qui Rapporte" ,one of Arletty's first parts.