Often when I come to post a comment on something like this - A French film made in the 30s, 40s or 50s - I find only one previous comment by dbmonteuil and nine times out of ten we are in accord, especially in the case of Julien Duvivier, but he doesn't seem to think too much of this one which is sad because I quite enjoyed it. Of course dbmonteuil is French and lives in France whereas I answer to neither and I must respect his greater knowledge and access to a wider range of French cinema than myself. Nevertheless I repeat that I found this Edwardian-set tale of a young girl, Chiffon, ill at ease in the restrictive society in which she lives extremely enjoyable. Autant-Lara has an eye for period detail - her uncle by marriage, for example, is a pioneer aviator thus we are treated to several scenes of early flight and if you throw in the odd vintage car, the period dress, the lavish settings - how did they manage it under the Occupation we ask ourselves - the result is something for everyone (or perhaps ALMOST everyone. The plot is light enough with Chiffon reluctant to accept her mother's choice of potential husband in favour of the 'uncle' with whom she is in love did she but know it but as I keep saying it's all in the telling and this tale is told very deftly.

:It's about 1904 in the middle of France. Lt. Colonel André Luguet has just been posted back to his old haunts on a rainy night. Walking to his hotel, he encounters Odette Joyeux, a 28-year-old woman playing a girl half her age splashing barefoot in a puddle and is enchanted. One by one, we are introduced to Odette's family: her mother, Suzanne Dantès. her stepfather, Louis Seigner; her doting bachelor uncle-by-marriage, Jacques Demesnil, who is trying to build an airplane; and so forth. It's a sweet little romance that bounces back and forth, making fun of a France gone forty years.

It was the sort of movie approved by the authorities at the time: light, fluffy and not the sort of thing to make anyone think any deep thoughts. Director Claude Autunt-Laura was the Anti-Clouzot of directors. Clouzot showed you the seamy side of things. Autant-Lara showed you the rich drinking orangeade. Clouzot made one film during the War, LE CORBEAU, which got him banned because it annoyed the Vichy Government. Then, after the War, it still annoyed the new government, so he couldn't make another film for a few years. Meanwhile Autant-Lara made films before the War, during the War and after the War and no one seemed to notice, because they were pleasant, frothy things when that was the style. Just the amount of sex in them changed according to the current fashion.

It's a well-told story, even if Mlle. Joyeux is a bit old for her role. I'm sure the audience was pleased to think back to 1904, when La Belle France was forward-thinking and, in the words of a character here, discussing his marital defeat, "We always think we will win." I'm sure that modest, self-denigrating remark was approved by the censors, who could never approve of Clouzot, no matter whose government they represented.