Julien Duvivier, the great French director of films including 1937’s Pépé Le Moko, was very clear which was his favourite out of his many beautiful silent films. “Poil de Carotte: without hesitation,” he said. “Of all the films I have made, this is closest to my heart.” Made, and remade. Duvivier directed this silent Poil de Carotte in 1925, and then remade it as a sound film in 1932. He later began work on a third, colour version, but this was never realised.
Poil de Carotte, or Carrot Top or Red Hair, is based on an 1894 novella by Jules Renard, the autobiographical tale of an abused, redheaded child, driven right to the edge. Duvivier had been hired to write the screenplay for a proposed adaptation of the book, to be shot by the director Jacques Feyder.
When this was shelved, Duvivier made the project his own, deviating from the source material to tell a more personal story – he had himself had a difficult relationship with his own father. In an early scene, the young hero of this story angers his schoolteacher when he, with apparent cynicism, defines family as “a group of people forced to live together under one roof who cannot stand each other”. Sadly, as we will learn, this is the truth of his short experience.
The shoot was very troubled – they kept running out of money, and the actress who was to play the monstrous mother fell ill and had to be replaced by Charlotte Barbier-Krauss, who was conveniently the wife of Henry Krauss, who plays the distant father. A brilliantly energetic young actor, André Heuzé, plays the redheaded hero in his film debut – he played a handful of similar roles in a short-lived career in silents.
The film’s release was equally troubled. Critics accused Duvivier of distorting the source novel and the fuss was so great that a mutilated print of the film circulated, minus the brutal potty scene, a rare cinematic instance of lavatorial gaslighting, and other key sequences.
In its complete state, in its new restoration, Poil de Carotte is an audacious, as well as poignant film. There are some great moments to look out for, which tell the story beautifully, but also give you a wonderful sense of Duvivier’s poetic style as a filmmaker, his creativity and sympathy. You will see a deft, imaginative use of double-exposure, distortion and tints, unexpected perspective shots, including one down the barrel of a shotgun, and the inspired use of a swinging mirror to capture multiple angles on a domestic scene.
This is a real masterwork of French silent cinema, by a slightly underrated director, which may cause you some genuine emotional turmoil. But you will also be inspired by the beauty of the filmmaking. Duvivier’s greatness rests in making the camera tell lies, in order to reveal the most powerful of human truths.
- Poil de Carotte (Julien Duvivier, 1925) screens at BFI Southbank on Sunday 15 September with an introduction by Bryony Dixon and live musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne. Buy tickets here.
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