That's what Andy Warhol reportedly said ; "l'homme du jour" is proof positive it was true in the past too.
At first sight ,it appears as a vehicle for Maurice Chevalier ,but Duvivier's touch can be felt here ,there and everywhere ; that Chevalier was a big star is perhaps not so appropriate a choice for such a subject: A simple electrician becomes overnight the toast of the town , but it allows us to watch two Chevalier perform together in the wings and the final "moral" :"your place is behind the spotlight !" On the other hand ,Popesco is well cast as a selfish snob thespian ,in love with herself , who walks out on her lovers as soon as she's tired of hem,reserving her tenderness and affection for her pussycat.
For,in spite of the musical side , Duvivier 's usual depiction of the wickedness of the human soul is present here too. Since the beginning ,a former lover tells the man of the moment he too was the thespian's squeeze,and he hopes that he,his successor,will be luckier. One already feels it won't work : the refined lady and the coarse working class hero are worlds apart :she spouts Corneille,Racine and Shakespeare and his first language is slang , something the parasites around her do not know(or pretend they don't);the visit to the mom(marvelous Marcelle Géniat) ,who's milking her cows with her old hands begins with close shots on cow dungs on the way to the farm.
Besides, people from his class are even more ruthless than the privileged ones;" people who don't fit get the only fun they get from people putting people down "sang the sadly missed John Prine ; and for these people who envied him and where jealous of him,a commoner's fall is a sweet revenge .All in all, "l'homme du jour' could have been as noir and as pessimistic as Duvivier's masterpieces , if it weren't for the comic relief in the café and the meeting between the real Chevalier and Chevalier who plays the man of the hour ;sometimes truth can be stronger than fiction.
At first sight ,it appears as a vehicle for Maurice Chevalier ,but Duvivier's touch can be felt here ,there and everywhere ; that Chevalier was a big star is perhaps not so appropriate a choice for such a subject: A simple electrician becomes overnight the toast of the town , but it allows us to watch two Chevalier perform together in the wings and the final "moral" :"your place is behind the spotlight !" On the other hand ,Popesco is well cast as a selfish snob thespian ,in love with herself , who walks out on her lovers as soon as she's tired of hem,reserving her tenderness and affection for her pussycat.
For,in spite of the musical side , Duvivier 's usual depiction of the wickedness of the human soul is present here too. Since the beginning ,a former lover tells the man of the moment he too was the thespian's squeeze,and he hopes that he,his successor,will be luckier. One already feels it won't work : the refined lady and the coarse working class hero are worlds apart :she spouts Corneille,Racine and Shakespeare and his first language is slang , something the parasites around her do not know(or pretend they don't);the visit to the mom(marvelous Marcelle Géniat) ,who's milking her cows with her old hands begins with close shots on cow dungs on the way to the farm.
Besides, people from his class are even more ruthless than the privileged ones;" people who don't fit get the only fun they get from people putting people down "sang the sadly missed John Prine ; and for these people who envied him and where jealous of him,a commoner's fall is a sweet revenge .All in all, "l'homme du jour' could have been as noir and as pessimistic as Duvivier's masterpieces , if it weren't for the comic relief in the café and the meeting between the real Chevalier and Chevalier who plays the man of the hour ;sometimes truth can be stronger than fiction.
