• Julien Duvivier remade his own silent film here for Poil de carotte—Harry Baur is back again as Monsieur Lepic—the father of the title character (carrot top)—his son, who is an unloved child– ignored by Baur’s Lepic and abused by the mother (played by Simone Aubry)
  • Like most of Duvivier’s work it is an unhappy fiction for the most part
  • His always-active camera opens on a tour of the house—floating around lyrically from side to side
  • Duvivier uses the montage, the close-up, the dissolve and the camera movement—here he leans in and out of the family pictures of the individuals to introduce them—and then uses a cutaway to the actual character
  • A highlight is a montage of faces in close-up at the 51-minute mark when he disobeys his mother—the mother is an all-time villain—reminiscent of the cruelty in the step-father (though this is the real mother) in Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander
  • At least twice Duvivier pulls back the camera to reveal the action he just shot was actually behind a window—he moves and reframes (like Renoir did)
  • At the 63-minute mark a nice tracking shot left to right going along three rooms
  • Recommend but does not reach the top 10 of the year quality