Jean-Paul Le Chanois, a French director, was once held in contempt by the New Wave filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s. Despite this, a small number of his films deserve recognition.
Born Jean-Paul Dreyfus, Chanois was a member of the Communist Party and a union man. He collaborated with Jean Renoir and others on the propaganda film "La vie est à nous" (1936) for the French Communist Party.
Chanois' next film, "The Time of the Cherries" (1938),was an overtly socialist movie, but its muddled screenplay undermined its overall quality. After serving as a resistance fighter during World War II, Chanois resumed his film career in 1946 with "Messieurs Ludovic", which featured endearing characters and an overt populism.
Next came "Au Coeur De L'Orage" (1948),a patriotic documentary about the French Resistance, which compared favorably to René Clément's "La Bataille Du Rail". Chanois' sincerity in the documentary cannot be called into question, given his own experience as a resistance fighter.
Chanois' finest work is arguably "L'Ecole Buissonnière" (1949),based on the life of teacher Celestin Freinet. The film is one of the best postwar movies and is still relevant today.
Chanois' later films, "Sans Laisser D'Adresse" and "Agence Matrimoniale", resumed his populist theme and added a heartfelt humanism. In these films, all his directorial trademarks were in evidence; in particular, his sympathy for lonely people and for the character who must face a hostile world.
Chanois' career was progressing in a good direction, but it didn't seem that way after both "Papa, Mama, the Maid and I" and "Papa, Mama, My Wife and Me". The films gave a false picture of the average French family of the nineteen-fifties.
Chanois' most well-known work is perhaps "Les Miserables" (1958),although contemporary critics vocally preferred Raymond Bernard's classic 1930s version. They deemed Chanois' film to be a disappointing adaptation of Victor Hugo's mammoth novel.
Other notable films include "The Fugitives" (1955),which is based on a true story with one of the actors portraying himself during the war, and "The Case of Dr. Laurent", a heartfelt plea for painless childbirth.
