Crainquebille (1922)
Directed by Jacques Feyder

Film Review

Jacques Feyder's reputation as one of France's leading filmmakers was established early in the 1920s with such films as this masterful adaptation of a short novel by Anatole France, first published in 1901.  In contrast to his 1921 adventure epic L'Atlantide, Crainquebille is a comparatively modest piece combining social drama and satire, but one that is extraordinarily direct and engaging.  The film's subject matter fits perfectly with Feyder's naturalistic style of filmmaking, which exposes the director's humane sympathies for the less privileged members of society.  With a skill that becomes increasingly evident in his subsequent films, Feyder succeeds in drawing as much genuine poignancy as he can from the story without ever crossing the line into mawkish sentimentality.  See how masterfully he manages to employ comedy to offset the tragic elements of his drama, something which adds great depth to his characters and a very human dimension to their plight.

Whilst it is predominantly a realist drama. Crainquebille does offer as few memorable stylistic flourishes which show that Feyder was not averse to experimentation.  These include a demonic nightmare version of the trial scene, which appears to have been lifted from an early German expressionist film.  There are also shades of Chaplin, not just in the character of Crainquebille himself (a lovable outsider who appears to be constantly at odds with the world he lives in), but most evidently in the film's rather touching final sequences.  (The angelic child actor Jean Forest would feature in Feyder's subsequent films, Visages d'enfants and Gribiche.)  The film's cinematographer Léonce-Henri Burel would have a long and distinguished career, winning praise for his work on Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927) and Robert Bresson's Un condamné à mort s'est échappé (1956).

Whilst the film may not have received the recognition it deserved when it was first released, Crainquebille has recently come to be regarded as one of Feyder's most important works and a fine example of French silent cinema.  Anatole France's novella was subsequently adapted in 1933 by Jacques de Baroncelli, and then in 1954 by Ralph Habib.

Film Synopsis

For over forty years, a modest street peddler, Crainquebille, has sold vegetables from his cart in the environs of the Halles market in Paris.  One day, whilst waiting for a customer to give him his change, he is accosted by a policeman who insists that he moves on.   When he protests, Crainquebille is arrested, supposedly for swearing at the policeman.  After a farcical trial, the old man is sent to prison, where he enjoys the benefits of free shelter, free food, and even free healthcare.  But when he leaves prison, Crainquebille's fortunes take a turn for the worse.  All of his erstwhile customers shun him, and, with no income, he drowns his sorrows in drink.  Reduced to a loathsome tramp, the sad old man is about to end his life when a young street urchin takes him by the hand and persuades him to make a fresh start.