Word: delair
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...little Loire valley town of Saint-Bouize, where the good life consists of lolling in the two local bistros and sipping the cool white wines of Sancerre and Pouilly, Farmer Georges Delair's motorbike accident was a particular tragedy. The day an auto knocked him over the handle bars onto his head, life turned drab indeed for the large, affable man. Pains in his head and neck impaired his work. Even worse, the 33-year-old Delair told the court: "Before, white wine made me gay, joyous and optimistic. Now it gives me terrible headaches, and after...
...headaches and his hospital expenses, Delair was awarded a total of $7,300 in damages from the car driver. And under a legal principle known as prejudice d'agrément, which gives a Frenchman the right to some recompense for being deprived of his favorite pleasure, the court threw in a symbolic gesture to take care of the farmer's lost taste for wine: an additional ten francs...
...supporting cast, headed by Francois Perier as the shiftless husband and Suzy Delair as Gervaise's scheming enemy, is impeccable, and M. Clement's direction achieves its effects brilliantly. In term of motion picture artistry. Gervaise constitutes a nearly perfect effort (although the Brattle's projection technique leaves something to be desired.) Clement's slight humorous touches (which are almost forgotten in the depression of the climax) are masterstrokes: a beggar quietly switching his sign from "Aveugle" to "Sourd et Buet," the ridiculously bad singing of a guest at Gervaise's birthday party...
...while Clement introduces his humor with admirable subtlety, he plays his horror with brutal directness. Such scenes as the washing-house fight between Gervaise and her rival (where Miss Schell tears an earring out through Miss Delair's bleeding earlobe) and the bedroom where M. Perier has vomited the results of an all-day drinking spree--photographed in careful detail--are moments the viewer would like to, but cannot, forget...
...Brattle's latest Gallic import is unaffectedly gay, fresh, witty, and delightful without a single existential, soul-searching or morbid note. Fernandel is in his very best and unhackneyed form and Suzy Delair as his slightly dumpy but not unattractive wife is fully his match...