Adieu Léonard (1943)
Directed by Pierre Prévert

Film Review

One of the least typical of the films that Charles Trenet appeared in is this anarchic black comedy, penned by Marcel Carné collaborator Jacques Prévert.  Directed by Prévert's brother Pierre, Adieu Léonard is an unlikely film to have been made during the Occupation, partly because of its grimly comedic subject matter (which is made to appear even grimmer on account of Trenet's intensely likeable persona), but mainly because it portrays a world that is a grotesque parody of the ordered, law-abiding ideal that France's puppet president Maréchal Pétain was doing his damnedest to inflict on his nation. It is hard to imagine a film more different from Trenet's previous Occupation Era offering, the exuberant musical La Romance de Paris (1941).

It is surprising that the film was passed by the censor, given that it now resembles such an obvious anti-Pétainist, anti-Nazi piece.  If Trenet symbolises the true spirit of France, noble and uncorrupted, Julien Carette is clearly intended to represent the ordinary French man in the street, constantly in danger of being corrupted by the devil's emissary, here portrayed by a particularly nasty Pierre Brasseur.  No contemporary cinemagoer in France could have failed to make the equation between Brasseur's cynically manipulative Bonenfant (could there be a more inappropriate name for such a vile character?) and the Nazis who had taken control of their country.

The one song that Trenet sings in the film - La Chanson des petits métiers - resonates with the naive optimism of the Front Populaire years before the war,  - an idyllic era that must have seemed a lifetime away during the long years of Occupation.  The film ends with anarchy (i.e. freedom of the individual) triumphing over order (backed up with threats).  Carette chooses to side with the saintly pure Trenet rather than the fascistic Brasseur, and as these two head off into the sunset to start a new life on the open road, Brasseur ends up poor and powerless, about to face a very nasty fate at the hands of the unforgiving hoards.  Eight months after the film was released, the same scenario (more or less) was played out in France for real, with a little help from the Allies...

Film Synopsis

Not able to make an honest living by selling paper lanterns, Félicien Léonard resorts to a spot of safe cracking to supplement his meagre income.  Unfortunately, the safe he selects is empty and belongs to Prosper Bonenfant, a merchant who has made dishonesty an art form.  The latter forces Léonard to write a signed confession which he threatens to give to the police unless he will perform one small favour for him - to murder a cousin, Ludovic, who stands between him and a fortune.  Léonard has no choice but to accept the arrangement, but once he has met Ludovic, a simple minded poet, he has a sudden change of heart...