Loafer (film)

The main character of the film is the poet Jean Dubois d'Ombell, who is not seduced by the upcoming draft and military service. His aunt, Madame Blonden, makes every effort to facilitate his military service by enlisting the patronage of Colonel Brochard and giving his nephew the help of his servant Joseph, an incorrigible jovial and womanizer. In the army, Jean immediately becomes the target of classic barracks jokes, and Joseph is hard to adapt to such a life. Their brides also participate in army life: the frivolous girl Jean starts a flirt with a courteous lieutenant, and cutie Joseph becomes a barmaid and a “star” of a military unit. Jean will be punished, among other things, by a guardhouse for his involuntary eccentricities and lack of adaptability to army everyday life , but the young poet is trying to steadfastly endure the vicissitudes of fate, falling into various comedic situations ^[1] .

The vaudeville of playwrights Andre Muezi-Aeon ( FR. André Mouézy-Éon ) and Andre Sylvanas ( FR. André Sylvane ), first put on the stage in 1904, was filmed several times (for the first time in 1912), and in three cases out of four cameraman was Jean Bachelet ( fr. Jean Bachelet ) ^{[1] [2]} . The name of the play and film, traditionally transmitted into Russian as “Loafer”, translated from French means “fooling around”, “evasion from work” ^[3] .

After the failure of the movie “ Nana ” at the box office, in which Renoir put “everything to the last sou, ” starting in 1927 he was forced to turn to the filming of commercial cinema, the models of which he himself set low, later making an exception only for his two films of this period : “ Little seller of matches ” and “Loafer”, which was released in 1928 ^[4] . According to the director himself: “this film of a commercial warehouse with a modest budget was shot quite quickly.” It was especially expensive for Renoir that such a great actor as Michel Simon managed to make his debut in this film, and he also noted a collaboration with the dancer Georges Pomiez, who died shortly after the filming was completed. Also in this picture, the first wife of the director Catherine Gessling appeared in several episodes.

The picture was shot by Neo-Film (French Néo-Film ), and the producer was Pierre Bronberger ( French Pierre Braunberger ), with whom Renoir collaborated in the creation of his experimental film Charleston . Despite the fact that during this period, none of the films was personally selected by Renoir, he later wrote in his memoirs “My Life and My Films”, that after several weeks of work he already worked on them with complete dedication: “Although I I made custom films with a pure heart, I was nevertheless disappointed that I couldn’t shoot the paintings that I had planned ” ^[5] . In general, according to the memoirs of Renoir: “The shooting of this film, which has no close ties with the theatrical play on which it was made - burlesque with tragic and enchanting episodes - brought me deep satisfaction” ^[4] .

Francois Truffaut noted that the film was shot under the influence of the work of the highly regarded Renoir Charlie Chaplin , and as a characteristic feature he emphasized the laid-back atmosphere of the picture, which was known to the French director: “Loafer”, during the shooting of which there was clearly fun and complete freedom of improvisation, still it remains a masterpiece of live cinema, like its cousin Uncle “Charlie the Soldier” or “Charlie in the music hall” ” ^[1] . According to Truffaut, the camera’s movements in the picture literally “overwhelm with its courage” and amazes with its ingenuity, which is especially surprising given the meager means the film was shot: “the camera rotates, panes, rotates, twists and“ strains with all its might ” “, He searches the general plans in order to extract large plans from them at any cost” ^[6] . In addition, according to Truffaut: “There are few films in which the struggle between the director’s thirsty movement and equipment prone to stillness is so vividly depicted, there are few films in which the director’s victory over the circumstances is so obvious” ^[6] .

Andre Bazin noted the extraordinary freedom with which the director, “ royally indifferent to credibility, admits extreme exaggeration” and the “ Citerian ” ending of the picture, which, in his opinion, thematically portends the triumph of love in the ending of one of Renoir’s latest films “ Elena and Men " ^[6] .

According to a number of film experts, this film, in contrast to The Little Saleswoman of Matches, is considered a passing film in Renoir’s filmography and is a vivid example of the forced concessions that the director made in accordance with the will of the producers, and is not too high in artistic value. Thus, critics Rene Jeanne (French René Jeanne ) and Charles Ford (French Charles Ford ) wrote in their History of Cinema: “Worse, during the sunset of silent cinema, you also find the name of Renoir next to a certain“ Loafer ”standing no more than all the other military vaudevilles scattered throughout the history of French cinema ” ^[7] . However, according to André Bazin , this point of view is erroneous: “I would like to think that these historians, whom the memory has summed up, did not revise the charming film, so unlike other military vaudeville” ^[7] . According to the influential critic and film critic, who called for careful attention to the work of Renoir of a silent period and even to his films with an irreparable commercial reputation, “Loafer” only looks like a traditional army vaudeville:

Francois Truffaut also did not agree with the unilateral point of view of critics who saw in the film only a typical and whipped up army vaudeville; in addition, in his opinion, “this is not only one of the best silent films of Renoir, but one of the funniest films made in France” ^[1] . Georges Sadouil , believed that the film was not so much a standard French vaudeville from military life as a comedy in the American spirit, where the influence of Chaplin and Stroheim is clearly traced; in addition, “Loafer” stands out thanks to the excellent performance of the dancer Pommier and especially Michel Simon, and the film, according to F. Truffaut, told “about barracks life as eloquently as“ Zero for Behavior “ Vigo - about life in college ” ^[9] .

Pierre Leproon attributed the picture to the director’s experiment period, who, trying in vain to circumvent difficulties, remade a witty vaudeville into a silent film: “It is easy to guess that the film has little in common with the Muezi-Aeon play, but it is not much better than it. Art could not rest on such pirouettes ” ^[10] .

• Jean Renoir: Articles, interviews, memoirs, scripts. - M.: Art , 1972 . - 256 s.
• Renoir, Jean. My life and my films. - M .: Art, 1981. - 236 p.
• Bazin, Andre. Jean Renoir / Preface Jean Renoir. Enter Francois Truffaut. - M .: Museum of Cinema, 1995 .-- 191 p. - ISBN 5-88395-012-4 .
• Sadul, Georges . Chapter LVIII. French cinema of 1925-1929 // General history of cinema. Volume 4. Part 2. Hollywood. The end of silent cinema, 1919-1929. - M .: Art , 1982. - S. 281—341. - 557 p.

• " Loafer " (English) on the Internet Movie Database
• Tire-au-flanc (neopr.) . Ciné-Ressources (Cinémathèque française) .