La Poison – Review

21st April 2013

La Poison is a French black comedy that was written and directed by Sacha Guitry and originally released in November 1951. It stars Michel Simon, Jean Debucourt and Germaine Reuver, plus a multitude of French character actors. The story concerns a wily but feckless provincial Frenchman, Monsieur Braconnier (Simon), who has come to the decision that he can no longer stand his wife (Reuver). On the radio he hears defence barrister Monsieur Aubanel (Debucourt) boasting of his 100^th acquittal; Braconnier realises that if he can secure Aubanel’s services he might be able to literally get away with murder.

The real focus of La Poison – and the target of Guitry’s satire – is the legal system, specifically the extent to which that system is abused by the unscrupulous. Guitry’s view of who counts as “unscrupulous” seems to extend so far that it includes pretty much everybody. There’s no morality here: from the top of the judicial system down to the lowliest working man, everyone has an opinion of Braconnier’s crime – and a reason for exploiting it – but no-one thinks in terms of right and wrong, only guilty or not-guilty. Neither does anyone spare a thought for the victim, as unpleasant as she is.

There’s a context to this film which helps to explain why Guitry may have arrived at this jaundiced standpoint. Guitry was a successful French playwright and actor who began making films of his work in the 1930s; always prolific his stream of work was only partially halted by the Second World War and the Nazi occupation of France. That Guitry continued to work, albeit more slowly, during this period was, along with the perception that he enjoyed special favours from the Nazis, to count against him heavily once the war had ended. Indeed, almost as soon as Paris had been liberated in 1944 Guitry was arrested and imprisoned for collaboration. He was released after two months but banned from working. It wasn’t until 1947, after an official investigation into his wartime activities found in his favour, that he was permitted to resume his career.

I’m ashamed to say I don’t know enough about Guitry’s work to be able to tell you whether there is a marked difference between his pre- and post-war work but the general view seems to be that the frivolity which was characteristic of his early films was replaced by a much darker tone, and La Poison is a good example of this. It’s a very witty and amusing comedy but the theme at its heart is deadly serious and impossible to divorce from Guitry’s own experiences. For instance, the instant opinions on Braconnier’s guilt or innocence, based as they are on little more than fragments of information, are a direct reflection of Guitry’s post-war troubles.

In purely cinematic terms the film is excellent and this blu-ray release from Eureka’s ‘Masters of Cinema’ collection presents it in pristine condition. The scenes of provincial French life are beautifully observed and the acting is uniformly terrific, particularly Michel Simon as the increasingly garrulous M. Braconnier. One element is especially worthy of note as it is, in my experience, unique in cinema: a five-minute sequence before the action starts where Guitry wanders around the stage sets introducing his cast and crew. It’s quite remarkable, particularly the huge praise he lavishes on a distinctly uncomfortable-looking Michel Simon.

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