It Happened at the Inn (1943)

Posted By: Someonelse
Date: April 18, 2011

It Happened at the Inn / Goupi mains rouges (1943)
A film by Jacques Becker
DVD5 | PAL 4:3 (720 x 576) | AC3 1.0 @ 192 Kbps | 01:45:34 | 4,47 Gb
Lang: French | Subs: English
Genre: Drama, Classics | France

Originally Goupi Mains Rogues, this was the first new French feature film to be shown in the US since the end of WW2-though "new" was a relative term, inasmuch as the film was completed in 1943. The scene is a remote, rustic inn, managed by a scruffy family of peasants known as the Goupis. Practicing their own special brand of larceny, the Goupis fancy themselves as Runyonesque rogues, going so far as to bestow colorful nicknames upon themselves. The official head of the band is "Red Hands", played by Fernand Ledoux, but even he is answerable to the Goupis' patriarch, a 106-year-old named "The Emperor" (Maurice Schulz). Nearly plotless, Goupi Mains Rogues offers an unforgettable cast of characters and an abundance of authentic Gallic atmosphere. Picked up for American distribution by MGM, the film inexplicably disappeared from view within a few months; director Jacques Becker later claimed that MGM destroyed all the prints so that the film wouldn't compete with the studio's American-made productions, though this hardly seems to be the case.

IMDB

This is Jacques Becker's second effort and the first one that really counts.Along with "casque d'or" ,"rendez-vous de juillet" and "le trou",it may be his finest work,and for sure one of the classics of the French cinema,one of these that you can watch and watch again without being tired.

The scenarist Pierre Very,is,along with Boileau-Narcejac,the best French suspense writer,and he outdoes himself here,creating an absorbing plot,a magic atmosphere,and a dozen of colorful characters .Out in the sticks,lives the Goupi family:actually a clan who's got its own laws and in which strangers are looked upon pretty much as enemies.In this strange family,every member has got a nickname,each one of them beginning with Goupi:Goupi-mes-sous,Goupi-Muguet,Goupi-Tonkin,of course Goupi-mains -rouges (Goupi-red-hands),and more.One fine day,a young man arrives from Paris :this is the first time he comes in this lost country,to visit his family.His late mother had escaped the Goupi clan,being unable to stand this plate cut off the world.Needless to say,coming from the City,he's not welcome.The plot thickens when a Goupi wicked woman is murdered and the patriarch has a stroke and is no longer able to indicate where the family pile is hidden.

Jacques Becker created a very strange atmosphere,mainly during the first part:when the young man arrives ,he's taken by his uncle Goupi-Mains-Rouges to a scary place full of stuffed animals and black magic. He has wonderfully depicted his peasant milieu,in which they all stand together ,and in which they would not betray one of them,even if the police investigates their home.

There is a first-class cast,including Fernand ledoux,Georges Rollin,Germaine Kerjean and Blanchette Brunoy ;but the stand out is Robert Le Vigan,who portrays a former legionnaire,slipping gradually into madness.The most famous scene of the film belongs to him:pursued by the police,he climbs upon a tree,higher and higher,trying to reach for this sun he used to know when he was a soldier in the Colonies.A similar character is featured in Becker's follow-up movie "Falbalas",but insanity is much more credible in "Goupi Mains Rouges".

Had Hitchcock directed a country thriller,that would have been this one.
IMDB Reviewer
8 out of 8 people found the review useful


With its extraordinary combination of black comedy, thriller, romance and neo-realist flourishes, Goupi mains rouges is almost certainly Jacques Becker’s most unusual film, and one which offers a rare unromantic depiction of French country life. It was made at the time of the German occupation of France during World War II and, like many films of this period, this is reflected in the film’s dark mood of pessimism and cynical depiction of human nature. Unusually, Becker manages to make light of this dark subject matter and the film manages to be an entertaining black comedy as well as an atmospheric rural thriller.

The grim noirish style of cinematography (which Becker would later use so effectively in his 1953 policier Touchez pas au grisbi) gives the narrative its very palpable sense of menace, and elements of suspense thriller are employed to heighten tension and create a frustrating sense of mystery. The darkness of the setting is both amplified and lightened by the bizarre menagerie of characters which populates the film. The Goupis are collectively a brilliant creation, including individuals that range from the pathetic to the truly grotesque, an obvious caricature yet one which offers at least a partly convincing portrait of a close-knit rural family.

The film’s strength lies in the quality of the performances and the depth of characterisation. Fernard Ledoux’s taciturn Goupi-Mains rouges is magnificently complimented by Robert Le Vigan’s outrageously over-the-top portrayal of Goupi-Tonkin, and Georges Rollin easily wins our sympathy as the innocent outsider Goupi-Monsieur. This is a character-based fiction in the truest sense of the word, and it is this, perhaps more than anything, which makes Goupi mains rouges such a delightful and memorable piece of cinema.
James Travers, filmsdefrance



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