(2008; Faubourg 36, French) Charged with murder, Germain Pigoil (Gérard Jugnot), a man of principle and veteran stage manager of the Chansonia Theatre in the Faubourg district of Paris, tells a poignant story, beginning with how the music hall was closed, following the suicide of the owner Dorfeuil on New Year's Eve of 1936, who was unable to pay money due to Félix Galapiat (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), landowner and local fascist politician.

As well, Pigoil's wife Viviane (Élisabeth Vitali) ran off with the singer Tony Nightingale. Then his son Jojo (Maxence Perrin), playing an accordion, gets caught begging (because his father's out of work) with his pal Clément; the authorities send the boy to live with his mother, who has settled down with a respectable retailer.

But when Jewish comedian Jacky Jacquet (Kad Merad), "The Prince of Imitators," boldly re-enters the Chansonia, Pigoil and his former stage technician Emile Milou Lebovich (Clovis Cornillac), a radical communist, decide to occupy the property.

Effectively assembling elements of sentimentality, comedy, and nostalgia to play opposite romance, tragedy, and historical relevance, director Christophe Barratier, who co-wrote the script with Pierre Philippe, has just the right touch to pull off this musical drama.

Taking the advice (analogies with French monarchs) of Trique, his accountant, to become more likeable, even "beloved," Galapiat permits the unemployed actors and stage hands an opportunity to refurbish and reopen the theater.

Enter Douce (Nora Arnezeder) just in time for auditions, a newcomer from Lille, arriving in hopes of meeting Dorfeuil, though because she's recommended by Galapiat she's assumed to be a tart, but with her gorgeous "pins" and experience doing radio commercials she becomes the show's announcer of acts.

By accident Douce becomes the star of the vaudeville production, singing her mother's songs; Milou and Galapiat vie for her affections, symbolic of the wooing of the French by the communists and the fascists.

After she leaves Fauborg, to escape Galapiat's clutches, "Radio Man" Monsieur TSF (Pierre Richard), who earlier had encouraged Jojo's accordion playing, hearing her singing on the wireless, exits his residence for the first time in 20 years to reveal his secret connection to Rose Dalbray, Douce's mother, and the Chansonia.

On New Year's Eve, 1945, Pigoil's narrative comes to a close. This picture brought to mind Cinema Paradiso.

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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