La Vieille dame indigne (1965)
Directed by René Allio

Film Review

Set decorator at La Scala in Milan and the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, René Allio made his directing debut with a short film entitled La Meule in 1962.   His first feature-length film was a comedy-drama released on 25th March 1965, La Vieille dame indigne, a superb adaptation of a novella by Bertolt Brecht.  A commercial success, the film was nominated for several prestigious awards and won the Prix Méliès (Critics Award) in 1965.  The film's popularity kick-started Allio's filmmaking career, and a string of successes followed, including: L'Une et l'autre (1967), Les Camisards (1972) and Rude journée pour la reine (1973).

La Vieille dame indigne is a gently provocative film which condemns the hypocrisies and flawed moral values of the time in which it was made.  The plot revolves around an old woman who, in her declining years, decides to take advantage of the world's pleasures, instead of doing what society expects of her, which is to play the dignified widow, quietly mourning the loss of her husband.  Anchored between the French New Wave and the rebellious spirit of May 1968, the film effectively evokes the mood of its era, an era of shifting moral attitudes and a desire to move on from the repression and austerity of the past decade.    

René Allio not only directed the film, which he does with understated flair, he also supplied the screenplay, with its enjoyably crisp dialogue.  The soundtrack includes the marvellous number On ne voit pas le temps passer, written by singer Jean Ferrat.  The grand actress Louise Pauline Mainguene, better known as Sylvie, portrays the central character with a roguish charm that is perfectly suited for her part.  Sylvie had an enormous stage career between 1903 and 1959, and her film credits (spanning three decades) are just as impressive.  For the most part a supporting actress (of the highest calibre), she appeared in numerous classics of French cinema, including Entrée des artistes (1938), Le Corbeau (1943), Le Petit monde de don camillo (1951), Thérèse Raquin (1953) and Le Miroir à deux faces (1958).  In La Vieille dame indigne, her last film, she played the septuagenarian Madame Bertini, even though she was in fact 80 years old.

When the French-Tunisian Victor Lanoux, then a 22-year-old scene-shifter, saw Anthony Quinn on the set of Jean Delannoy's Notre Dame de Paris (1956), he made up his mind there and then to become an actor.  As Sylvie's kind and dreamy grandson Pierre, Lanoux shows a natural talent at the start of his long and distinguished career.  The French-Polish actress Malka Ribowska (Allio's wife) personifies the liberated youth of the time as the waitress Rosalie, a woman continually searching for freedom.  Another distinguished name in the credits is Jean Bouise, one of the most important supporting actors in French cinema from 1963 to 1990.  Having been nominated for Césars for his work on Le Vieux fusil (1976) and Le Juge Fayard dit Le Shériff  (1978), he finally received the Best Supporting Actor award for Coup de tête (1980).  Here, in his fourth film, Bouise plays the the imaginative shoemaker Alphonse with his customary flair.  The supporting cast offers an ensemble of delightful comedians that includes Étienne Bierry, François Maistre and Pascale de Boysson. 

La Vieille dame indigne attracted an audience of 0.65 million on its first release in France but has rarely been seen since.  An engaging and well-crafted film, its underlying moral is not quite so ambiguous as it first seems...

Film Synopsis

Madame Berthe is 70 years old when her husband dies.  She has two children, Albert and Gaston, who work nearby in Marseilles.  Albert hopes to use the money that his father left to save his business from bankruptcy.  Gaston is equally determined to get his hands on his father's money, by getting his mother to move in with him.  However, Berthe has no intention of handing over the money and decides that, for the first time in her life, she will live for herself.  She intends to see something of the world, so she buys a car and starts making new friends...