Gaspard de Besse (1935)
Directed by André Hugon

Film Review

Described as the Robin Hood of Provence, Gaspard de Besse became a popular figure in pre-revolutionary France, through his system of wealth distribution that now appears benign compared with the approach adopted by Robespierre and his cohorts not long after the outlaw's death in 1781.  Modelling himself on another socially conscious outlaw, Louis Mandrin, Gaspard de Besse enjoyed seven years of pilfering from the undeserving rich, never once resorting to violence, before he was finally captured and executed before the crowds at the age of 24.  His colourful exploits have been the stuff of provençal lore for generations and are affectionately recounted by Jean Aicard in his 1919 book Gaspard de Besse : un bandit à la française.

Director André Hugon's screen adaptation of Aicard's popular historical text brings home the similarities with England's own heroic outlaw, Robin of Loxley, and bears witness to the fact that if there's one thing the French like more than an anti-establishment outsider it is an anti-establishment outsider with a social conscience.  Sympathetically portrayed by Antonin Berval, Hugon's interpretation of Gaspard de Besse is the archetypal romantic hero, whose victims look as if they consider it a privilege to be forced by such a good egg to part with a portion of their vast fortune for the benefit of the less well-off (funny that their descendants never regarded the tax man in the same light).  Those who oppose him and conspire to bring him to justice, in particular the supremely vile Sépharin Cocarel, are presented as envoys of the Devil, whilst those who side with him, like the angelic Thérèse and saintly Samplan, are emblems of seraphic virtue.  It's such an infantile demarcation of good and evil that you wonder if there's any truth in the film at all, but then this is supposed to be mass entertainment, not a history lecture.  Providing you're not tempted to use the film as the basis of your master's thesis, it is probably okay for Hugon to represent Gaspard and his army of thieving mercenaries as the 18th century forerunner of France's social services (only without the exasperating bureaucracy).

André Hugon is all but forgotten today (very few of the eighty or so films he made have stood the test of time) but in his day he was a highly successful commercial filmmaker who succeeded where many of his avant-garde contemporaries failed.  Hugon began making films in 1913 and has the distinction of having made the first sound film in France - Les Trois Masques (1929).  He was ahead of his time in using exterior locations, most often the lush countryside of Provence, to bring a picturesque realism and epic feel to his literary adaptations.  Gaspard de Besse was one of his more ambitious sound pictures, its abundance of location sequences setting it apart from most other French film productions of this era.  Not long before this, Hugon had directed two other notable adaptations of novels by Jean Aicard - Maurin des Maures (1932) and L'Illustre Maurin (1933), with Antonin Berval again cast as the titular hero.

Although Berval plays the title character in Gaspard de Besse, top billing went to his co-star Raimu, who virtually eclipses him in the role of Gaspard's first lieutenant, the likeably down-to-earth Samplan.  Within a few years of taking theatre audience by storm with his portrayal of César in Marcel Pagnol's stage play Marius in 1929, Raimu became the most revered and popular of film actors in France.  Whilst his performances may be considered mannered and theatrical by modern standards, Raimu was never less than compelling on stage or on film.  His ability to project his everyman personality through the screen and make a deep emotional connection with an audience was what made him such a successful performer, and this is as evident in Hugon's Gaspard de Besse as it is in some of his better known films.

That said, it is somewhat to the film's detriment that Raimu dominates the proceedings to the extent that he does, with the result that Berval is practically relegated to the status of a supporting player.  However, it is apparent that without Raimu the film would hold far less interest.  A lacklustre script and a general feeling of complacency on the directing and acting fronts date the film somewhat, robbing it of the dramatic tension and pace it needs to do justice to its subject matter.  The film's set-pieces are impressively staged but, photographed and edited with a distinct lack of artistry, they fail to deliver as much impact as they might.  Hugon directs the film not as an artist, but as a competent journeyman.  Unlike Abel Gance, say, he saw no need to push the boundaries and go beyond the merely prosaic.

It is Raimu that gives the film its heart and soul, preventing it from being just another routine, easily forgotten swashbuckler.  Was it happenstance or Hugon's intention that his character should end up as the true hero of the piece, whilst Berval's Gaspard feels like nothing more than a vague impression of a mythical do-gooder?  We hardly notice, or even care to notice, Gaspard's tragic fate at the end of the film.  Our attention is monopolised by Samplan, the ordinary man whose heroism and sacrifice the history books will of course fail to mention.  Raimu's natural ability to encapsulate the quiet courage of Mr Average would later be exploited by Hugon (albeit somewhat less successfully) on the latter's forthright anti-war film Le Héros de la Marne (1938).

Film Synopsis

In 1774, the young Gaspard Bouis works as a blacksmith with his older friend Samplan in the provençal village of Besse.  Unable to pay their debts to the rich moneylender Cabasse, the two men face imminent eviction from their forge.  This, and the unprovoked hanging of an old man by a party of noblemen, settles their fate.  Although he is in love with Thérèse, Cabasse's beautiful daughter, Gaspard makes up his mind to become an outlaw, robbing from the rich to feed the poor, like the celebrated highwayman Louis Mandrin.  Assisted by his faithful friend, Gaspard assembles an army from disgruntled military men who have been denied their pay for many months and liberated prisoners, all willing to support his cause and oppose the injustices of present day France.

Because he steals without violence, Gaspard soon comes to be regarded as a local hero, but his reputation is at risk when another bandit with the same name but none of his scruples sets to work in the area.  On discovering that a suitor of hers, the nobleman Sépharin Cocarel, is plotting to arrest the virtuous Gaspard, Thérèse hastens to warn him - but too late.  Gaspard is arrested and thrown into prison.  After Sampan has succeeded in rescuing his friend, Thérèse decides to join the gang of outlaws.  Despite his apparent good fortune, Gaspard's time is fast running out.  Hearing that the king's army is preparing to capture his gang he decides to surrender himself to justice.  With Gaspard in prison awaiting execution, Samplan strikes a deal with the judge to have him released in exchange for his odious namesake.  Cocarel's cunning thwarts Samplan's last-ditch attempt to save his friend...