Monsieur Fabre is a decent vehicle for the great French actor Pierre Fresnay (who most may know as the aristocratic officer in Grand Illusion) and an educational story about a pioneering entomologist who should be better known .
The treatment combines many remarkable close shots of the insects Fabre studies and tries to teach his male offspring about (sexist to be sure in assuming the women offspring wouldn't be pursuing science, but true to the times) These scenes reminded me of the similarly remarkable nature footage of underwater creatures that documentary director Jean Painleve made his life work.
The other main strand is the familiar biopic arc of the great thinker and inventor who is not sufficiently appreciated by his stodgy and outright reactionary colleagues. They and the people in the small Southern France towns oppose Fabre for talking about how insects have sex and for allowing boys and girls to study together and for fostering humor and play in his classroom rather than strict discipline.
Deprived of a progressive champion in the Imperial court,Fabre withdraws into retirement and Fresnay cakes himself up in old age makeup.
If this kind of story sounds familiar it is because you and the French would have seen it before in the popular Hollywood entries The Story of Louis Pasteur and The Life of Emile Zola with Paul Muni also disguising himself in thick make up and speaking out against the ignorant and the prejudiced. There were also one of two similar biopics later with Edward G Robinson doing the honors.
So a mixed result here. But worth seeing to learn about Fabre and to look at the insects.
The treatment combines many remarkable close shots of the insects Fabre studies and tries to teach his male offspring about (sexist to be sure in assuming the women offspring wouldn't be pursuing science, but true to the times) These scenes reminded me of the similarly remarkable nature footage of underwater creatures that documentary director Jean Painleve made his life work.
The other main strand is the familiar biopic arc of the great thinker and inventor who is not sufficiently appreciated by his stodgy and outright reactionary colleagues. They and the people in the small Southern France towns oppose Fabre for talking about how insects have sex and for allowing boys and girls to study together and for fostering humor and play in his classroom rather than strict discipline.
Deprived of a progressive champion in the Imperial court,Fabre withdraws into retirement and Fresnay cakes himself up in old age makeup.
If this kind of story sounds familiar it is because you and the French would have seen it before in the popular Hollywood entries The Story of Louis Pasteur and The Life of Emile Zola with Paul Muni also disguising himself in thick make up and speaking out against the ignorant and the prejudiced. There were also one of two similar biopics later with Edward G Robinson doing the honors.
So a mixed result here. But worth seeing to learn about Fabre and to look at the insects.