Il fu Mattia Pascal

don't know where he's going to Isn't he a bit like me and you?

At a time when remakes show up at such a speed that pretty soon you won't be able to tell if a movie is an original ,this is good news to write that "L'Homme de Nulle Part" is a good ,nay excellent remake .A first silent version was filmed by Marcel L herbier in 1924 as "Feu Mathias Pascal" based on the same Pirandello play.Today's audience will find the talkie much more palatable,in spite of a watered down ending.

The Pirandellesque subject was so exciting it probably inspired writers such as Patricia Highsmith when she wrote "the talented mister Ripley" or William Irish's "no man of her own" .The movie is in turn a comedy, a melodrama,a ghost story ,a detective story,you name it..With an exceptionally good cast including Pierre Blanchard (Mathias alias Adrien) ,Le Vigan (the count;he only appears halfway through so be patient),Margo Lion ("Caporal" who enjoys séances in the dark),Ginette Leclerc (the bad wife) ,Isa Miranda (Louise the gorgeous romantic young girl).If they had kept Michel Simon (silent version) for the part of Sinoel ,it would have been the most perfect cast you could have dreamed of.Sinoel is the only character which underwent some changes.In the silent version ,Michel Simon portrayed the good pal ,who really wanted to help his unfortunate friend .Chenal made him a coward,a selfish oaf.

Most of the plot follows the 1924 version: the wedding,the bad news (you are broke and you did not tell me so before !) ,Leclerc lying on her bed and refusing to give herself to her husband,the Casino episode,the boarding-house where the hero find loves ,the come back..

But the best scene remains the funeral.Haven't you ever thought of attending your own funeral?Hypocrisy was rarely given a better depiction with the two women (the wife and the mother-in-law )weeping all along the way to the graveyard.

Pierre Chenal had always said it was his favorite movie.I do not agree with him,though,for I have always thought that "La Foire Aux Chimères" was his absolute masterpiece .Both deal with humiliated men and a certain misogyny ("L'Homme de Nulle Part" features two loyal women though)