Poil de Carotte -- which means "carrot top" -- is a curious amalgam of fairytale themes and psychological realism. The film evokes fairy tales with its story of a neglected and exploited child who has a kindly godparent, set in a picturesque French village that, except for the absence of a castle with a prince in it, could have doubled for the setting of Cinderella. We first meet the film's Cinderella analog, François Lepic (Robert Lynen), known universally as "Poil de carotte," as he is about to leave school for a vacation back home. He doesn't really want to go: When we first see him, he is being criticized by a teacher for having written in an essay, "A family is a group of people forced to live together under one roof who can't stand one another." We soon find out how he comes by this cynical definition when he arrives home to his vaguely neglectful father (Harry Baur), his icy, controlling mother (Catherine Fonteney), and his spoiled older siblings, Ernestine (Simone Aubry) and Félix (Maxime Fromiot). His status in the family becomes apparent at the dinner table, where he sits licking his lips in anticipation of the dish of melon slices being passed around, only to have his mother say he doesn't want any, apparently because she doesn't like melons. After dinner, he is sent to take the melon rinds -- he gnaws on them once he's outside -- to the rabbits and to shut the gate to the chicken yard. He protests: It's dark outside and he's scared. But his sister and brother refuse the task because they're both reading, and he's sent out into the night, which he imagines to be full of ghosts dancing in a ring. His only escape from the chores, his mother's harshness, and his father's indifference is to visit his godfather (Louis Gauthier), a cheerful idler, where he wades in the brook and has a mock wedding with a little neighbor girl, Mathilde (Colette Segall), presided over by the godfather playing a tune on his hurdy-gurdy. It's a lovely little pastoral idyll that ends all too soon. As he returns home, Poil de Carotte realizes how lonely and unloved he is, and he begins to contemplate suicide. This abrupt reversal of mood comes from an 1894 novella by Jules Renard that writer-director Julien Duvivier first adapted for a silent movie version in 1926. It's a little too abrupt for a work of psychological truth: Poil de Carotte has been seen as resilient and resourceful up to this point, and his deep depression comes upon him all too suddenly. When he finally achieves a connection with his father, in a scene that despite the dramatic flaws of the film is quite touching, it's explained to us that Poil de Carotte was conceived by accident, long after the husband and wife had ceased to love each other. He therefore became an object of resentment by both parents. At the end, the father vows that everyone will call him François, not Poil de Carotte, henceforth. The performances by Lynen and Baur make this second reversal plausible, if not entirely convincing. Duvivier's direction is more solid than his screenplay, and the film is at its best in the scenes of village life, beautifully shot by Armand Thirard.
7 Reviews
Early masterpiece from Duvivier
bensonj22 August 2004
The story itself is simple: a young boy is the odd one out. His parents are much older; his mother unmercifully picks on him, favoring his near-adult siblings, while his long-suffering father has withdrawn into the small pleasures of hunting and meeting with friends. Really, it's a sort of Cinderella: the wicked step-mother (only it's his real mother), the vain pampered older siblings, his having to work and slave for them, wearing tattered hand-me-downs. But it's told with a wonderful leisurely anecdotal naturalism, laced with delightful moments of surrealism (he's surrounded by double-exposure goblins when told to close up the hen house at night, for example). The greatest scene in the film combines the two, as the boy and a young girl "rehearse" a marriage ceremony, marching through the fields while the animals about them burst into song. The father, as delineated by Baur, and the maid, also immeasurably enriched by a subtle performance, are marvelous characters. The film was made during that brief period when the French countryside was a pre-technological world, yet technology was sufficiently advanced so that sound films could document that existence. Certainly there are "literary" story telling elements, such as the family being "introduced" by the father, the older maid telling the new maid what to expect, and the boy's school essay about his miserable family life. But the wonderful thing about the film is its ineffable technique and its enigmatic moments that are the purest styleless cinema. There are many visual joys, like the shot of boys playing leap-frog with the town spread out below them, that are presented with simplicity and unostentatious naturalism. All told, this is a film of the highest cinematic art, approaching the level of Renoir and Ozu.
I saw this film at the unlikely venue of the Walter Reade Theatre in New York. The film was introduced by David Grossman, a retired exhibitor who dedicated the showing to film historian and enthusiast William K. Everson. Grossman was so full of love for the film that he could hardly express himself. The print was his, cobbled together from several sources. The original US and British release was missing most of the wedding rehearsal and all of the scene where the boy swims while his uncle fishes (the latter because the boy is nude). He spoke of Duvivier's great love for making movies. The film, he said, ran a year in Paris in its initial release, unheard of during the depression. At the end of the film, he stood from his seat and stated that the actor who played the young boy was later executed by the Nazis for being in the resistance, and that Baur was also executed by the Nazis, only a few weeks before the liberation, for reasons not clear. He apologized for the poor subtitles (the reinserted scenes had none, and the rest had those intermittent titles that, as he said, was typical of the thirties), though he needn't have apologized since full translation was unnecessary. And he asked for comments from the audience in the manner of someone who's just taken a friend to see his very favorite film. and asks, "Well, wasn't it great?" A very appropriate introduction to this wonderful film.
This is a film that cries out for restoration and wider release. I wonder if the print shown on Ontario TV and the video offered on Amazon (probably the same) are complete.
I saw this film at the unlikely venue of the Walter Reade Theatre in New York. The film was introduced by David Grossman, a retired exhibitor who dedicated the showing to film historian and enthusiast William K. Everson. Grossman was so full of love for the film that he could hardly express himself. The print was his, cobbled together from several sources. The original US and British release was missing most of the wedding rehearsal and all of the scene where the boy swims while his uncle fishes (the latter because the boy is nude). He spoke of Duvivier's great love for making movies. The film, he said, ran a year in Paris in its initial release, unheard of during the depression. At the end of the film, he stood from his seat and stated that the actor who played the young boy was later executed by the Nazis for being in the resistance, and that Baur was also executed by the Nazis, only a few weeks before the liberation, for reasons not clear. He apologized for the poor subtitles (the reinserted scenes had none, and the rest had those intermittent titles that, as he said, was typical of the thirties), though he needn't have apologized since full translation was unnecessary. And he asked for comments from the audience in the manner of someone who's just taken a friend to see his very favorite film. and asks, "Well, wasn't it great?" A very appropriate introduction to this wonderful film.
This is a film that cries out for restoration and wider release. I wonder if the print shown on Ontario TV and the video offered on Amazon (probably the same) are complete.
Absolutely superb in every department!
DavidW194714 July 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Bullied by his hateful mother and by his much older brother and sister, ignored by his father, the childhood of eleven years old Francoise Lepic (Robert Lynen) is as miserable as it could ever be. An illegitimate and unwanted child, he is the main reason for the ill feeling which exists between his parents, who continue to live in the same house, but are far apart. His mother keeps him dressed in old and tattered cast-offs and hand me downs, while his much older brother and sister have the best clothes that money can buy. Meanwhile, he doesn't even have any underpants to wear; he is skinny because she denies him his share of the food; although he has fair hair, his mother insists that he has red hair and this gives her an excuse to hate him, nicknaming him Poil de Carotte (the carrot top). She always has him doing the chores while his older siblings sit around doing nothing. Miserably unhappy herself and trapped in a loveless marriage, she makes sure he is denied anything that would make him happy. In the midst of all this, Francoise has learned to put on a happy face for outsiders such as his teacher at school, while inside, he is seething with resentment and unhappiness. In the end, Poil de Carotte's suffering becomes more than he can bear and he decides to kill himself
! Considering the age of this film, eighty years old, this is one hell of a terrific film and it should be made available on DVD to a wider audience with English subtitles. Director Julien Duvivier could easily be thought of as the Carol Reed of French cinema
certainly he was just as good at getting wonderful performances out of boys who had never acted before
and there are some real standout scenes in this example of his work. One is where Francoise is out playing in a stream when the family's maid, Annette, comes after him in a horse and trap. His mother wants him to go home and do the chores. As they drive back to his unhappy home with Francoise driving, he sees children being loved by their parents and other adults in the fields they pass. Enraged that they can be happy when he can't, Francoise stands up in the cart and whips the horse into a furious gallop again and again as Annette tries to wrestle the reins from him. "NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE ME LIKE THAT!", he shouts, as he whips the horse to go faster and faster, almost running people down walking along the road. "NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE ME! NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE ME!", he yells, as Annette begs him to stop and tries to grab the reins from his hand. This is a stunning sequence, a superb blend of editing and scoring and acting from an eleven year old the likes of which I'd never seen before. Towards the end of the film, where his father enters the barn just in time to prevent his son from hanging himself, we see the most powerful scene in this remarkable film. "TAKE OFF THE ROPE!", the father orders as he wrestles with his son, trying to prevent him jumping off the crate. "NO! NO! NO!", cries Francoise. "TAKE IT OFF!" shouts his father. "I WANT TO DIE! I WANT TO DIE!", cries the boy.
The film was released in France in November, 1932 and Robert caused a sensation, rocketing to stardom overnight. Incredibly, the film ran for twelve months in Paris, something that was unheard of during the depression.
I had never heard the name Robert Lynen until I came across a Picturegoer magazine from October, 1948, containing a review of Carol Reed's then new film release "The Fallen Idol", where the reviewer said that child actor Bobby Henrey was comparable to another child actor, Robert Lynen, who caused a sensation in the French film "Poil de Carotte" and that Robert was killed during the war. I immediately investigated this and found that not only was there a similarity in the boy's looks and manners, but that during the war, Robert joined the French resistance (a very brave thing to do); that he was caught by the Gestapo and tortured before being executed along with fourteen of his colleagues and thrown into a mass grave. A terrible and totally unjustified end for this very talented French former child actor who had appeared in many films and was well loved. Yes, he was a real hero and I would have been proud to know him.
His remains were later removed and reburied in a proper grave and a colour photo of it can be found on the Find a Grave website. I soon bought the DVD of his 1932 film "Poil de Carotte" from amazon France and was enthralled by it, although it had no English subtitles. But a friend of mine sent me an AVI DVD-R of the film with English subtitles, which made viewing the film an even better experience. Oddly, Robert Lynen's full name was Robert Henri Lynen, so he could also have been called Bobby Henri as a child.
The film was released in France in November, 1932 and Robert caused a sensation, rocketing to stardom overnight. Incredibly, the film ran for twelve months in Paris, something that was unheard of during the depression.
I had never heard the name Robert Lynen until I came across a Picturegoer magazine from October, 1948, containing a review of Carol Reed's then new film release "The Fallen Idol", where the reviewer said that child actor Bobby Henrey was comparable to another child actor, Robert Lynen, who caused a sensation in the French film "Poil de Carotte" and that Robert was killed during the war. I immediately investigated this and found that not only was there a similarity in the boy's looks and manners, but that during the war, Robert joined the French resistance (a very brave thing to do); that he was caught by the Gestapo and tortured before being executed along with fourteen of his colleagues and thrown into a mass grave. A terrible and totally unjustified end for this very talented French former child actor who had appeared in many films and was well loved. Yes, he was a real hero and I would have been proud to know him.
His remains were later removed and reburied in a proper grave and a colour photo of it can be found on the Find a Grave website. I soon bought the DVD of his 1932 film "Poil de Carotte" from amazon France and was enthralled by it, although it had no English subtitles. But a friend of mine sent me an AVI DVD-R of the film with English subtitles, which made viewing the film an even better experience. Oddly, Robert Lynen's full name was Robert Henri Lynen, so he could also have been called Bobby Henri as a child.
Duvivier meets Renard :up where they belong
dbdumonteil6 July 2006
A remake was made by Graziani in 1972.Although it featured Philippe Noiret,ideally cast as M.Lepic,it did not work.
Part of the reason can be found,IMHO, in the very structure of the book.Jules Renard's literature classic ,from which
the FRench young students study at least one chapter ,is a very hard work to transfer to the screen: it is made of small vignettes,small scenes ;it's not really a linear plot.One could have thought that Duvivier,who was the absolute master of the movie made up of sketches ,would opt for this technique for his "Poil de Carotte" .You are underestimating him:he knew,forty years before Graziani ,that he would have got a listless film.
Duvivier wrote himself the screenplay -as he had done in the past and as he would almost always do in the future;to think that he was not looked upon by some people as an auteur!- and he connected all the links of the chain.Using Renard's short scenes (the melon,the hens,Mathilde,the girlie) ,Duvivier perfectly integrated them into a whole.There is a progression in his movie which did not exist in the book.Only the masters of the seventh art know how to make a book their very own (other examples:Jean Renoir and Zola's "la Bete Humaine" ;Alfred Hitchcock and Boileau -Narcejac's "D'Entre les Morts" ("Vertigo").
A minor quibble:Catherine Fontenay's Madame Lepic is too theatrical and her shrill delivery is in direct contrast to Robert Lynen's and Harry Baur's very modern playing.Frontenay seems to be still living in the silent age.The monstrous mother,almost like in Hitchcock 's canon,would come back in Duvivier's huge body of work: a crazy mother in "Un carnet de Bal" who thinks that her dead son is still with her ; the over possessive one in "Voici le Temps des assassins" ,the absent one (replaced by a terrifying stepmother ) in "Boulevard" ;the selfish one ,protrayed by Danielle Darrieux in one sketch of "Le Diable et Les Dix Commandements".She was already here in "David Golder" (1930) ,asking dying Baur for a few Francs more....
Robert Lynen ,whose fate was tragic-see the first comment-,gives a performance so modern I do not think any contemporary whiz kid could approach .His Poil de Carotte refuses to be a martyr.He is a rebel,and even if he almost commits suicide (in a scene that would remain one of the peaks of Duvivier's works) he's a rebel and the last lines of the movie have something of a happy end ,which is very rare in the director's work.Happy end ,relatively speaking:actually a new war has begun:"now there are two of us" M.Lepic says.In the book,Renard wrote:"I can assure you that you will have comforting surprises" .One should note that "Poil de Carotte" was an autobiographical book.
Nobody ,not François Truffaut in "les Quatre Cents Coups " ,not even Maurice Pialat in his harrowing " L'Enfance Nue" equaled Duvivier when it came to depicting stolen childhood.Duvivier's peers are rather Bunuel ("los Olvidados" )Loach ("Kes" ) or Comencini ("Incompreso" "Cuore" ).
Part of the reason can be found,IMHO, in the very structure of the book.Jules Renard's literature classic ,from which
the FRench young students study at least one chapter ,is a very hard work to transfer to the screen: it is made of small vignettes,small scenes ;it's not really a linear plot.One could have thought that Duvivier,who was the absolute master of the movie made up of sketches ,would opt for this technique for his "Poil de Carotte" .You are underestimating him:he knew,forty years before Graziani ,that he would have got a listless film.
Duvivier wrote himself the screenplay -as he had done in the past and as he would almost always do in the future;to think that he was not looked upon by some people as an auteur!- and he connected all the links of the chain.Using Renard's short scenes (the melon,the hens,Mathilde,the girlie) ,Duvivier perfectly integrated them into a whole.There is a progression in his movie which did not exist in the book.Only the masters of the seventh art know how to make a book their very own (other examples:Jean Renoir and Zola's "la Bete Humaine" ;Alfred Hitchcock and Boileau -Narcejac's "D'Entre les Morts" ("Vertigo").
A minor quibble:Catherine Fontenay's Madame Lepic is too theatrical and her shrill delivery is in direct contrast to Robert Lynen's and Harry Baur's very modern playing.Frontenay seems to be still living in the silent age.The monstrous mother,almost like in Hitchcock 's canon,would come back in Duvivier's huge body of work: a crazy mother in "Un carnet de Bal" who thinks that her dead son is still with her ; the over possessive one in "Voici le Temps des assassins" ,the absent one (replaced by a terrifying stepmother ) in "Boulevard" ;the selfish one ,protrayed by Danielle Darrieux in one sketch of "Le Diable et Les Dix Commandements".She was already here in "David Golder" (1930) ,asking dying Baur for a few Francs more....
Robert Lynen ,whose fate was tragic-see the first comment-,gives a performance so modern I do not think any contemporary whiz kid could approach .His Poil de Carotte refuses to be a martyr.He is a rebel,and even if he almost commits suicide (in a scene that would remain one of the peaks of Duvivier's works) he's a rebel and the last lines of the movie have something of a happy end ,which is very rare in the director's work.Happy end ,relatively speaking:actually a new war has begun:"now there are two of us" M.Lepic says.In the book,Renard wrote:"I can assure you that you will have comforting surprises" .One should note that "Poil de Carotte" was an autobiographical book.
Nobody ,not François Truffaut in "les Quatre Cents Coups " ,not even Maurice Pialat in his harrowing " L'Enfance Nue" equaled Duvivier when it came to depicting stolen childhood.Duvivier's peers are rather Bunuel ("los Olvidados" )Loach ("Kes" ) or Comencini ("Incompreso" "Cuore" ).
"A family, is a group of people forced to live together under one roof,and who can't stand each other."
morrison-dylan-fan27 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
After watching the gripping La tete d'un homme (1933-also reviewed) in November,I decided to hold the rest of the Criterion Eclipse Series 44: Julien Duvivier in the Thirties titles for special occasions. In the middle of watching every French film from 1932 I can find with English subtitles, I pulled the carrot out of the best set.
View on the film:
Not given their full remastering treatment, Criterion present a transfer that has noticeable spots of dirt, but also has a clean soundtrack and well-paced English subtitles.
Whilst Henri Graziani would attempt to clean the tale up with an ill-judged chocolate wrapper appearance for the 1973 remake (also reviewed), writer/directing auteur Julien Duvivier is joined by regular collaborator cinematographer Armand Thirard in continuing to expand Duvivier's recurring motif of exploring the darkest corners of humanity. Keeping the camera at Francois's height, Duvivier stylishly covers "Carrot Top's" surroundings in soot blocking any shards of light from entering the household, and looking upwards to Francois's mum as a almost demonic being. Tugged and shoved around by everyone, Duvivier peels into Francois's psychological state with magnificent overlaps, double-exposures and dissolves drawing the inner conversations Francois is having with himself and the goblins that haunt him to a physical form, leading to a chilling set-piece, where Francois hangs on the edge and looks down into Duvivier's pit.
Growing this adaptation of Jules Renard's novel, the screenplay by Duvivier brilliantly makes Francois's life a living hell.kicked from constant bullying from his siblings, to his mother making it clear that he is a unwanted child, by dressing him in shredded rags and having Francois clean up everyone else's mess. Attempting to hold the flicker of light from his dad, Duvivier makes this hold one which is not held with ease, by the abrasive, distant relationship the parents have causing Francois's dad to lose touch with him.
Murdered by the Nazis at just 23 years old in 1943 with 14 fellow French Resistance fighters, Robert Lynen gives an incredibly mature debut performance as Francois, whose pain and loss of optimism is captured by Lynen in subtly drained facial expressions. Whilst playing a different tune to the rest of the cast, Catherine Fonteney gives a deliriously theatrical performance which turns Francois's mum into a hissing beast. Later being tortured to death by the Gestapo in 1943, Harry Baur's performance as Francois's dad is one filled with an incredible warmth that brings light to Francois.
View on the film:
Not given their full remastering treatment, Criterion present a transfer that has noticeable spots of dirt, but also has a clean soundtrack and well-paced English subtitles.
Whilst Henri Graziani would attempt to clean the tale up with an ill-judged chocolate wrapper appearance for the 1973 remake (also reviewed), writer/directing auteur Julien Duvivier is joined by regular collaborator cinematographer Armand Thirard in continuing to expand Duvivier's recurring motif of exploring the darkest corners of humanity. Keeping the camera at Francois's height, Duvivier stylishly covers "Carrot Top's" surroundings in soot blocking any shards of light from entering the household, and looking upwards to Francois's mum as a almost demonic being. Tugged and shoved around by everyone, Duvivier peels into Francois's psychological state with magnificent overlaps, double-exposures and dissolves drawing the inner conversations Francois is having with himself and the goblins that haunt him to a physical form, leading to a chilling set-piece, where Francois hangs on the edge and looks down into Duvivier's pit.
Growing this adaptation of Jules Renard's novel, the screenplay by Duvivier brilliantly makes Francois's life a living hell.kicked from constant bullying from his siblings, to his mother making it clear that he is a unwanted child, by dressing him in shredded rags and having Francois clean up everyone else's mess. Attempting to hold the flicker of light from his dad, Duvivier makes this hold one which is not held with ease, by the abrasive, distant relationship the parents have causing Francois's dad to lose touch with him.
Murdered by the Nazis at just 23 years old in 1943 with 14 fellow French Resistance fighters, Robert Lynen gives an incredibly mature debut performance as Francois, whose pain and loss of optimism is captured by Lynen in subtly drained facial expressions. Whilst playing a different tune to the rest of the cast, Catherine Fonteney gives a deliriously theatrical performance which turns Francois's mum into a hissing beast. Later being tortured to death by the Gestapo in 1943, Harry Baur's performance as Francois's dad is one filled with an incredible warmth that brings light to Francois.
Before "A.I.", there was "Poil de carotte"...
benoit-319 October 2003
Julien Duvivier is not only one the most important French directors ("Golgotha"), he is also one of the most important American directors there ever was ("Tales of Manhattan" and so many others). His "Poil de carotte", which I saw on French Ontario television tonight, is not only an immortal classic for its interpretation by a ten year old Robert Lynen, but also for its script, its photography - which didn't age at all since 1932 -, its sound and music and its general air of realism. It's about the suffering of unloved children. As such, it is certainly one of the inspirations behind Kubrick's and Spielberg's "A.I.". Many directors have borrowed from this film, notably Robert Bresson in "Mouchette" and Walt Disney in "Cinderella" (the scene where the wicked stepmother - here, the hero's real mother - sneaks up behind Cinderella to lock her up in her room).
Cinderfella
writers_reign22 June 2004
If Truffaut had bothered to see this gem before penning his infamous essay in which he tarred master craftsmen like Duvivier (who wrote and directed this film), Carne, Renoir, Allegret, Jeanson, Bost, Aurenche, Prevert, etc with the same 'incompetent' brush he would not have had the gall to shoot even one frame of his own take on the subject, 'The 400 Yawns'. As it is Duvivier is still being revived after 70 years whilst with any luck the Truffaut-Godard drek will sink without trace long before that. Here Duvivier obtains an exquisite and heartbreaking performance from ten-year-old Robert Lynen (one of the few French actors to take an active part in the 'Resistance' for which he paid with his life) and it's difficult to imagine what Duvivier said or did to Lynen prior to shooting the scene in the barn where he trembles on the brink of suicide but whatever it was he should bottle it and make it available to directors everywhere. There have, of course, been 'child' actors before - one thinks of Bobby Henry in 'The Fallen Idol', Claude Jarman Jnr, in 'The Yearling', Brandon de Wilde in 'Shane' - and there will be again but it is doubtful indeed if one will ever eclipse Lynen. The story is unashamedly lifted from Cinderella and comes complete with two ugly siblings, one of each sex and a wicked Mother instead of a Stepmother, which Comedie Francaise actress Catherine Fonteney brings off to a fare-thee-well without resorting to chewing the scenery a la Charles Laughton. Harry Baur turns in sterling work as the father whose only crime is in failing to notice he has a young son whose life is reduced to misery by a cold, uncaring mother and two spoiled brats. Duvivier was a master director (he would use Lynen again first in his poetic La Belle Equipe with the great Gabin and later in Un Carnet de Bal with Raimu, Louis Jouvet and Harry Baur (also a victim of the nazis). In sum: a wonderful, lyrical evocation of a tainted childhood. 9/10
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