Faubourg 36 (2008)
Directed by Christophe Barratier

Film Review

For his eagerly awaited follow-up to Les Choristes, the biggest hit at the French box office in 2004, director Christophe Barratier sticks with the nostalgia theme and offers a similarly kitsch mélange of musical and sentimental drama.  The setting is France, 1936, a year of optimism and solidarity amongst the working classes, which soon proved to be a false dawn for socialism as the Popular Front government failed to come to grips with the problems of the time.  Whilst the film evokes the period pretty well, it is so heavily dowsed in cliché and tacky sentimentality that it fails to have anything like the impact of Barratier's previous film.  A completely formulaic plot is rendered painfully absurd by some needlessly operatic mise-en-scène and performances that are completely lacking in conviction and charm.  Kad Merad's impression of Fernandel and one or two of the musical numbers provide a welcome respite from the mushy mawkishness and infantile characterisation but these few fleeting moments of delight are not enough to sweeten the pretty indigestible pill which is Faubourg 36.

Film Synopsis

France, 1936.  The election of the Popular Front government brings hope to a depressed nation but are the expectations of a workers' revolution justified or unreasonably optimistic?  In one district in the north of Paris, Dorfeuil, the owner of the music hall Le Chasonia is driven to suicide when he cannot pay back the money he owes to the pro-Fascist gangster Galapiat.  The closure of Le Chasonia brings misery to its manager, Pigoil, who drowns his sorrows in drink when his wife abandons him, taking their son with her.  Pigoil is pulled back from the brink when Jacky, a failed comic, and Milou, a technician, suggest that the three of them club together and try to reopen La Chansonia.  In the hope of recovering some of his money, Galapiat gives Pigoil and his friends three months to make a success of the venture.  Things start off well when Pigoil takes on Douce, an attractive young singer who is bound to be a hit with the public.  It isn't long before Milou is madly in love with Douce, but Galapiat also has amorous designs on the singer, and this is when Pigoil's troubles really begin...