Carnaval (1953)
Directed by Henri Verneuil

Film Review

Between his last two directorial efforts for cinema - Manon des sources (1953) and Les Lettres de mon moulin (1954) - Marcel Pagnol scripted this lively comedy for his own production company, based on a popular stage play by Emile Mazaud.  It was a happy reunion for Pagnol with the comic actor Fernandel, who had recently excelled himself in Topaze (1951), Pagnol's remake of an earlier film based on one of his earliest plays.  Pagnol ceded the directing duties to Henri Verneuil, an up-and-coming filmmaker who had already put Fernandel's comedic and dramatic talents to good use in La Table aux crevés (1952) and Le Fruit défendu (1952).

Carnaval deals lightly, if not scurrilously, with a subject that was, at the time, considered serious, namely marital infidelity, and was considered shocking in some quarters.  The spectacle of Fernandel waving a banner proclaiming him as a 'first class cuckold' is not one that most fans of the comic actor would have expected to see, nor is the sight of the comedian standing on a carnival float of horn-adorned cuckolds and singing a cheerful number that begins "Cocus de France et de Navarre, salut, cocus de monde entier".  It is hard to know which is less plausible - that Fernandel should star in such a risqué film, or that Pagnol should have deigned to pen it.  Suffice it to say that it is not the most glorious episode in the career of either man.

Pagnol's penchant for long chatty scenes does to tend to make the film more cumbersome and heavy going than it deserves to be, with the result that many of the best gags get drowned in a sea of pointless verbiage.  Fortunately, the film boasts a sufficiently talented cast to prevent the whole thing ending up as either a vulgar comedy or a tedious word-a-thon.  Fernandel is on cracking form (as he invariably was in Pagnol's films) and is at his best when sparring off Pagnol's wife at the time, the loveably feisty Jacqueline Bouvier.  Saturnin Fabre and Pauline Carton both lend enormous lustre to the film, and you can't help regretting the fact that they had not been given a much greater part in the proceedings.  Carnaval is by no means a career highpoint for Fernandel, Pagnol or Verneuil, but it is an enjoyable departure from their respective norms.

Film Synopsis

Dardamelle, an architect living in Aix-en-Provence, is blissfully unaware that his wife, Francine, is having an affair with another man.  When Dardamelle refuses to buy her a new dress, Francine reveals her secret - and is totally unprepared for her husband's reaction.  Instead of taking offence, Dardamelle goes overboard to publicise the news, and starts by hanging a banner with the words 'First class cuckold' from his balcony.  The architect then forms a society for cheated husbands and intends that his wife's infidelity will form the star attraction at the rapidly approaching carnival...