People do not read Malot's novel that much anymore nowadays ; but it was often tranferred to the screen: two miniseries (the later starring Pierre Richard as Vitalis,the former starring Petula Clark as Mrs Milligan) .
Two versions for the silver screen were made before this one: Marc Allégret 's (1934) which is the most faithful to the novel,featuring wunderkind Robert Lynen and André Michel's (1958) which was a big disappointment.
This one has qualities :by no means an improvement on the thirties version ,it features an excellent Vitalis portrayed by the always reliable Daniel Auteuil ;by and large , till the episode in England , the work is successful, particularly the harrowing separation with Mère Barberin (but we are deprived of the famous crepes scene); the gendarmes arresting Vitalis because he's got no permit to perform , which shows how social injustice was hard on the poor in the nineteenth century); likewise, Mrs Harper (Virginie Ledoyen ) who ,oddly ,replaces Mrs Milligan on her boat (the Swan)?keeps her distance from that common busker who eventually cuts her down to size; the scenes when the animals intervene -although Vitalis's troupe has been drastically reduced- are well acted ; the cinematography is a feast for the eye and the music is tuneful.Add a good chemistry between the man and the child.
It goes without saying that "sans famille" was a two-volume novel,an exponential melodrama that was impossible to treat in a 100- minute film; so exit Garofoli , Mattia ( his absence was already noticed by an user) , Arthur (Mrs Milligan's sickly son replaced on the boat by a disabled girl,Lise ,who appears later in the novel).
The last third is botched ;Vitalis died long before his protégé got to England in the novel ;there's a nice panoramic of London town under the snow and that's it ;the Driscoll family is given a treatment a la Dickens (who anyway was a strong influence on Malot),but one can wonder why they scarcely speak their first language whereas the Milligan do .Using English would have increased Remi's terror.
Even more questionable is the tale presented as a long flashback ; Jacques Perrin who portrays the old Rémi had probably in mind "Les Choristes " (see the posters on the wall) a blockbuster he produced in the naughties .The first scene ,notably ,is downright heavy-handed.
The Driscoll/Milligan affair looks like it has just been stuck onto the rest of the story ;it would certainly have been better to introduce Mrs Milligan on the boat (with or without Arthur).
Two thirds of the movie are good, so you make it on the percentages, but lose out on the bonuses ; for a film aimed at the children's market, that's still good value and can appeal to the whole family.
6 out of 9 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
