Sans famille (1934)
15KSans famille: Directed by Marc Allégret. With Vanni Marcoux, Dorville, Robert Lynen, Madeleine Guitty. A little boy is sold to a busker who takes him on all the roads of the France with his troupe of animals .
“This version of the famous novel by Hector Malot begins in England (which lets the cat out of the bag very soon for those who do not know the plot):the wicked uncle wants to latch on to the Mulligan heritage and has got to get rid of all the male heirs;one of them-the other is a sick child called Arthur-Remi was to be killed by the kidnapper who took pity on him and entrusted him to the Barberinu0026#39;s safekeeping.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSafekeeping? If the woman (Mere Barberin) is a loving mom,who makes crepes for her fostered kid,her husband is a crude brute ,whose affairs in Paris went wrong and left him an embittered man ,who does not want another mouth to feed;thus he sells Rémy to a busker who takes the boy on all the roads of the country with his troupe of animals :three dogs and a monkey.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is the a very faithful version,much more than the color fifties version ;the scenes on the boat u0026#39;Le Cygneu0026quot; (the swan)are included and like in the book,Remy is given choice:shall he stay on the comfortable boat or shall he follow again Vitalis -a former opera singer who had to call it a day when his voice failed ?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSome chapters were not treated but itu0026#39;s a mammoth novel:for instance the episode in Auvergne and the coal mine tragedy were ruled out.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBack in London,you feel the influence of Dickens on Malot:Driscoll,Rémyu0026#39;s false dad,is some kind of Fagin and he teaches his sons and daughters the tricks of the u0026quot;tradeu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMarc Allégret does not transcend the 1878 tear jerker work ,but at least he keeps the most memorable episodes (particularly that of the crepes)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNB :Robert Lynen,who plays Remi,was discovered by JuLien Duvivier (the much superior u0026quot;Poil De Carotteu0026quot;u0026quot; ),became a resistant fighter during the war and was shot by the Germans in a fortress in Karlsruhe.”
