Film Review
At first sight,
Gargousse, the last but one
film that director Henry Wulschleger made with the enormously popular
comic performer Bach, seems to be a banal little comedy,
but look more closely and you will see something far more
interesting. The anti-authority tomfoolery which Bach and
Wulschleger indulged in with their lively garrison comedies (
Tire-au-flanc,
Le Train de 8 heures 47,
Le Cantinier de la coloniale)
now makes an effective anti-Fascist satire, visibly reflecting concerns
in France at the time of the ever-growing threat posed by Fascism, both
within and beyond its borders.
In the rule-obsessed mayor Lebrennois (played to comic perfection by
Saturnin Fabre) we see an unflattering caricature of Hitler and
Mussolini - a pathetic, self-important tyrant who believes that order
and discipline are the way to happiness and prosperity. By
contrast, Gargousse, the comical station master who cherishes freedom
above everything else, represents the spirit of France - and the song
he sings to a like-minded ensemble says as much - "
J'suis un homme libre et je fais ce qui me
plaît, Tous ce que j'demande, qu'on me fiche la paix..."
("I am a free man and I do what I please, All I ask is to be left in
peace.")
Wulschleger's film may have been intended as an inoffensive little
comedy but it proved to be eerily prophetic. Within two years of
its release, France would be living the fictional war of
Trépigny for real, the country divided between those who
supported a Lebrennois-like 'order is good for you' dictator (namely
Marshal Pétain) and those who, like Gargousse, valued freedom
too much to give it up without a fight.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Trépigny is one of the more tranquil towns in France, and it would
no doubt have stayed that way if the newly elected mayor, Lebrennois, hadn't
set his sights on modernising it in the hope of attracting more tourists
to the area. In the stationmaster Gargousse he finds he has the fiercest
of opponents. A popular free spirit who occasionally indulges in a
spot of poaching, Gargousse sees nothing good in the mayor's grandiose plans
for the town and is determined to prevent them from coming to fruition. Lebrennois
has further reason to resent the troublesome stationmaster when his nephew
Alain begins showing a romantic interest in his enemy's goddaughter Antoinette.
To the mayor's blinkered way of thinking, the railway line is an absurdly
out-dated mode of transportation and should be replaced by a far more efficient
and cost effective coach service. This is one development that the
stick-in-the-mud Gargousse hadn't expected. Now that his job is on
the line (or rather off the line, if he loses it), the stationmaster decides
the time has come for decisive action. So infuriated is he with the
egregious mayor that he offers him a duel that will allow him to totally
discredit his latest madcap idea. The gloves are finally off!
Now the town of Trépigny is to witness the most fiercely fought contest
in its entire history...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.