Special screening: Poil de Carotte

Poil de Carotte / The Red Head

On Monday, 28 May 2012, at 6:30 pm

Director : Julien Duvivier

1932, 91 min

Based on the famous autobiographic novel by Jules Renard, Poil de Carotte deals with the story of an unloved redheaded child, victim of a cruel family. François Lepic, nicknamed Poil de Carotte, is the punch bag of his mother Ms. Lepic and his father pays no attention to him, occupied with hunting and politics. Facing a hostile reality, Poil de carotte uses cunning to battle the daily humiliations he experiences and to stand up to the adult world. But despite the affection of his godfather and of his small fellow Mathilde, to whom he already gives the name of “fiancée”, Poil de Carotte is haunted by the idea of suicide…

With its justifiably famous scene of Poil de Carotte's "wedding" to the little country girl, this astonishingly sophisticated early sound film is a visual poem of innocence and grace that would inspire René Clément’s Jeux interdits (Forbidden Games) twenty years later. "In a rare example of a remake surpassing its memorable original," notes Lenny Borger, "Duvivier gave definitive form to this classic chronicle of childhood. Baur plays the father with all his subtle authority and young Lynen cuts deep to the desperate pathos of lonely Poil de Carotte. A film of great tenderness, and lyricism, with a final reconciliation scene between Baur and Lynen to force a sob from the stoniest breast”.

FREE ENTRY - RIGHTS OF ADMISSION RESERVED

For more information, please send an email to culture_comm@afdelhi.org