THE RED INN

France, 1951, 98 minutes, Black and white.
Fernandel, Francoise Rosay.
Directed by Claude Autant Lara.

The Red Inn is a black comedy from early '50s France. It created some scandal in its time - however, in later decades, it seems an excellent example of the genre. It is an attack (echoes of Renoir's films) on the bourgeoisie and the church.

The film is artificial in its style and settings. However, its strength is in the performances of Fernandel as the slightly comic monk, put in a position of hearing the confession of a murderess and unable to do anything about her intended victims. Francoise Rosay and Julien Carette are also excellent as Martin and Marie, the owners of the Red Inn.

The film has a gallery of characters, obnoxious - and potential for being murdered. There are ironies about responsibility, justice, the law, religion and the seal of confession. The ending is particularly ironic.

An interesting example of French black comedy.

1. The impact of the film? Its drama? Comedy? Cynicism? Satire?

2. Black and white photography, artificial locations? Light and darkness? Night and day? The few exterior sequences? The finale? The musical score?

3. The title and the focus on the inn? of what goes on? Seeming hospitality? The irony?

4. Martin and Marie - initially seen as Mine Host and Hostess? Peasants in the remote mountain areas? Poor business? The welcome of the guests and the housing of them? The revelation that they murdered their customers? Stole their goods? The irony of the coach load of guests having to stay the night? Going through the motions of hospitality? Their plans? Their black servant and his complicity? How well did the film delineate their characters?

5. The arrival of the monk and the novice? Hospitality and their staying the night? The reverence for the monk? Marie, and her decision to go to confession? Putting the monk in the dilemma of knowing what was to happen but being forbidden to reveal it? her ease of conscience? The burden on him?

6. The French comedian Fernandel as the monk? Serious and comic? His devout novice? Joining with the guests? Enjoying the hospitality? The burden of the confession? His plight? Relief with the arrival of the law? His horror at the death of the guests when the coach crashed? His going mad? Impotence in the face of evil and tragedy?

7. The servant and his complicity, his dealings with the guests, the irony of his sawing the bridge and causing the death of the guests despite the arrest of master and mistress?

8. The range of guests and what they represented? Men and women? Business? Professions? Their attitudes towards their journey, towards Martin and Marie, towards the accommodation? Their behaviour, the satire on them and their bourgeois attitudes? Their being saved by the arrival of the law? The irony of their deaths?

9. The police, suspicions? The irony of the monkey escaping? Their coming to arrest Martin and Marie?

10. The interplay of characters? The revelation of characters? The bleak and black comedy with the sinister innkeeper and his wife? Her going to confession? Justice seeming to be done? comic justice?