Motion Picture Review Digest (Jan-Dec 1936)

70 MOTION PICTURE REVIEW DIGEST LA KERMESSE HEROIQUE — Continued to be able to get past the fresh-paint sign into the past. Jacques Feyder's mature intelligent direction makes this story of nineteen hours of a September day and night in 1616 a richly colored tapestry brought to life. . . Every role, down to the smallest bits of soldiers and peasants, is perfectly done." (3V2 stars) Beverly Hills Liberty p35 N 7 '36 '"* 'La Kermesse Heroique,' is one of the most diverting [pictures] I have ever watched. . . The acting of Frangoise Rosay as the mayor's wife is alone worth going miles to see. But perhaps it is more to the point to speak of the way the entire cast wears its clothes. I have seldom seen a more convincing costume piece, and the reason seems to be that nobody is aware that he has stepped out of a seventeenth-century Low Country painting. . . It will be remembered by those who see it as an extraordinarily finished film." Mark Van Doren + + Nation p428 O 10 '36 "At last, a cultured film. . . Except that it shows us Jan Breughel busy painting a Franz Hals, not only is the film lovingly true in its 'atmosphere' and scrupulously attentive to detail, but it was evidently inspired by its subject— the plump and buoyant life of the Netherlands . . . with which the director has completely identified it. This can be said of few films. . . We are made to feel that . . . Feyder's burgesses will slip back into the frames of their old masters, resuming a two-dimensional peace from which his motion-camera woke them to momentary life. The film is an object-lesson to Hollywood and Denham — it shows that the 'costume-picture' need not be vulgar and ill i i pi*£i i <-* " + + New Statesman & Nation p628 O 24 '36 " 'La Kermesse Heroique' [is] the most scintillating and adult costume comedy that has ever come from abroad. . . The film has received a facture lavish beyond what one thought possible to French movie finance. All in all a remarkable enterprise in which Jacques Feyder, the director, astounds with the spontaneity and unfailing Tightness of his seemingly inexhaustible comic devices." Robert Stebbins + + New Theatre p25 O '36 "Crowned with richly deserved laurels in France and Italy, Jacques Feyder's 'La Kermesse Heroique' opened at the newly launched Filmarte Theater. It is a notable photoplay, gorgeously mounted and costumed, brilliantly acted and filled with all the sorcery that a cannily manipulated camera can invoke. . . [It is] a lusty and completely captivating motion picture. . . With this work Feyder takes his place with Rene Clair and Charlie Chaplin as one of the distinguished comic artists of the cinema. . . There is an abundant vitality about the photoplay that is rarely attained in the medium of the screen." Howard Barnes -f + N Y Herald Tribune p23 S 23 '36 "It is a production which has already won honors abroad, and a production which Hollywood might well covet as its own. They would probably not have done it as well in Hollywood. . . This is a cast that woulcj bring joy to any director, and Jacques Feyder has done his own job magnificently. . . [It] is about as much as a moviegoer can ask. . . Lazare Meerson, in charge of the settings, has succeeded in making the entire production look as though the paintings of seventeenth century Flanders had suddenly come to life. 'La Kermesse Heroique' is in answer to the people who wonder why movies don't occasionally tackle something original." Eileen Creelman + + N Y Sun p35 S 23 '36 "[The new] Filmarte [is] dedicated to the exhibition of outstanding pictures from abroad. Let us note at once that the Filmarte's first offering comes easily within the distinguished category mentioned in the theatre's dedication. . . [It] is an outstanding picture by any standards save those of strict moralists and stricter religionists. . . A delightfully satirical libel upon the city of Boom and its masculine in habitants, the film has achieved a delicate balance between broad farce and subtle humor which makes it one of the most refreshing and witty pictures of the year. . . Do not, we beg you, be dissuaded from seeing it because the dialogue is in French. Even without the many English subtitles, 'La Kermesse Heroique' would be clearly understood; like all great comedies, it speaks a universal language." F. S. Nugent -f + N Y Times p29 S 23 '36 "The so-called superiority of Homo Sapiens comes in for some cruel razzing in 'La Kermesse Heroique,' the lively and impudent little cinema prank from Paris. . . A bawdy romp, whose mood is ribald and treatment laughable, it ungently kicks the accepted legend that man is superior to woman swiftly and firmly in the pants, thereby inspiring much hilarity. . . In a few words, 'La Kermesse Heroique' is glib, sophisticated and tonic entertainment." William Boehnel + NY World-Telegram p31 S 23 '36 "Bawdy, funny, with wicked comedy by Frangoise Rosay, sets after Breughel, and a slick story about the ladies of a Flanders town and how they survived one Spanish invasion, it will divert jaded types." John Mosher + New Yorker p77 O 3 '36 "[It is] a light, bubbling French concoction. . . 'La Kermesse Heroique' roped in [two prizes] for the 'finest French film of the year.' . . Its director, Jacques Feyder, deserves both emblems." + News-Wk p34 O 3 '36 " 'La Kermesse Heroique' is the rarest thing in the cinema, a really adult film. . . It is an admirable film, a little obscene like most good comedies, and beautifully acted. I admired particularly the Dominican chaplain. . . M. Feyder's camera picks out with vividness and invention absurdities in costume and character and almost as skilfully as a Restoration dramatist he lightly works into his ribald story a touch of the genuine, the simple emotion." Graham Greene + + Spec p747 O 30 '36 "The French film which was awarded the Grand Prix du Cinema Francaise is running wild at the new Filmarte Theatre breaking records of audience response at every showing. This would seem to indicate that the French know their comedy, or that New Yorkers know their French, or maybe that a good picture is a good picture in any language. Let's grant all three. . . The burgomaster, played by Alerme, his wife, played by Francoise Rosay, and the Duke, portrayed by Jean Murat, have a field day of pantomime; and each is expert in sustaining a long and arduous sequence of fun. It is not customary that a comedy be mounted in luxurious settings, but 'La Kermesse Heroique' takes place before a background so compellingly beautiful that it should be used as a standard of excellence by all picture makers." + + Stage pl4 N '36 "Directed by Jacques Feyder . . . 'La Kermesse Heroique' explodes the theory that Rene Clair has a monopoly on urbane comedy in the French cinema. It is as sly a farce as any that has ever led a U.S. censor board to mistake good manners for innocent intentions. Produced at a cost of $850,000 — fabulous for a French cinema — and magnificently set by Lazare Meerson, it was distinguished abroad by winning the grand Prix du Cinema Frangais, being banned in England and Holland." + Time p30 O 5 '36 Trade Paper Reviews "The sure-fire human qualities of this hilarious French satire make it delightful entertainment, the gay and sparkling dialogue of the super-imposed English titles insuring its universal appeal. Adults." + Box Office p27 O 3 '36 "Packed with clever acting by principals and supporting cast, hilarious comedy and sparkling French dialogue that flashes in crisply trans + + Exceptionally Good; -fGood; -\ Fair; [-Mediocre; —Poor; Exceptionally Poor