Au revoir Monsieur Grock (1950)
Directed by Pierre Billon

Film Review

Just a few years before he retired, the world's most famous circus clown Adrien Wettach, better known as Grock, bids a wistful adieu in this engaging but somewhat uneven valedictory biography, a Franco-German production half-heartedly directed by Pierre Billon.  Like most "authorised biographies", Au revoir Monsieur Grock (a.k.a. Clear the Ring) is not immune from distorting reality to put its subject in a more favourable light (the wartime sequences are highly suspect), but this hardly matters. 

The main reason for watching the film is to enjoy Grock performing some of the routines that made him one of the best-loved (and most highly paid) clowns in the world, including one which was imitated by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton in Limelight (1952).  Adrien Osperi and Ted Rémy play Grock respectively as a boy and young man, but Grock himself shows up, both in make-up and unadorned, in several scenes.  The film's main value is that it preserves for posterity the work of one of the true comic geniuses of all time, including his famous "leap from a chair" act which is simply one of the most amazing things you will ever see.

Film Synopsis

It is whilst he was growing up in Switzerland in the late 19th century that Adrien Wettach quickly became enchanted by circus life.  At first he trained to become an acrobat but it wasn't long before he discovered he had a talent for making people laugh and that his real metier was as a clown.  It wasn't many years before he became the most famous circus clown in the world, known to everyone by the name he had adopted - Grock.  His popularity made him one of the wealthiest men in his profession.  Now in his seventies, on the eve of his retirement, Wettach looks back on his past life and reminds himself of all those years, some happier than others, when he brought joy to thousands by doing what he did best - playing the clown...