MONSIEUR VINCENT

France, 1937, 111 minutes, Black and white.
Pierre Fresnay, Aime Sclarione, Gabrielle Borziand, Michele Bouquet, Jean Carmet.
Directed by Maurice Cloche.

Monsieur Vincent is one of the acclaimed film biographies of a Catholic saint. It emerged in the period of neo-realism in French cinema after World War Two. Director Maurice Cloche had been making films since the mid-30s and has continued for several decades. This was his outstanding work for international audiences.

The film recreates in black and white the atmosphere of France during the early 17th century and the reign of Louis XIV. Monsieur Vincent is a good priest, takes his place among the galley slaves in order to experience the poverty and hardships of the period (in the later vein of Les Miserables). This is the period to be seen in the Dumas stories, especially of The Three Musketeers and the time of Cardinal Richelieu. A grimmer picture of this period is seen in Ken Russell’s version of John Whiting’s The Devils.

Pierre Fresnay first performed in films in 1915. During the 1930s he appeared in the classic films Fanny and Marius as well Hitchcock’s 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much. He appeared in Renoir’s The Grand Illusion and continued to make films throughout World War Two. He appeared in such classics as Le Corbeau in 1943. After Monsieur Vincent he appeared as Offenbach in The Paris Waltz and appeared in several films with religious overtones especially God Needs Men (1950) and The Unfrocked One (1954).

This is a classic film of the French cinema.

1. A good religious film? What religious values did it present? How sincere was its religious impact? Why?

2. What were the main religious qualities of the film? The personality of Vincent de Paul? His good works? The attitude that the film took towards him and wanted to communicate to its audience?

3. A balanced picture of Vincent de Paul? Was his background well explained? rushed too much the final years at the end?

4. How, does one explain Vincent de Paul? The background of his youth? Of his priesthood? Of his initial ministry? His work in the parish, courage towards opposition? The variety of his work and its impact on him? Mixing with rich and poor? His holiness? How did the film explain Vincent's ho1iness? In what did it consist?

5. How, important were the sequences of his arrival in the village and his coping with the plague? How well did the film communicate his charity? The fear of the people? Their respect for him?

6. Did the film communicate well the poverty of the people of the time? Vincent's concern for the poor? The Christian motivation for being poor and far his being poorer than they?

7. How well did the film show French society of the time? The contrast between rich and poor? Was it an accurate picture of the rich?

8. Why did Vincent have such an ability to cope with the rich? Did he use it well? Should he have ignored the rich?

9. How was he a consolation to the poor? How did he gather people to himself to assist the poor? Was their assistance genuine or not? Which sequences illustrated this best?

10. Did the film make clear the need for organising his followers into a religious order? Or his establishing an order of nuns? For the need of having the nuns working in the streets to help the poor? Which sequences illustrated this best?

11. How important was Vincent's experience in the galleys? What did he discover? Did the film portray his suffering in the rowing too melodramatically? Or was this a vivid realization of what he had to do?

12. The influence of Vincent on society ladies and urging them to charity?

13. His association with Louise De Marillac? Her collaboration in the work of charity? The issue of the clash between them?


14. The conversation sequences with himself as elderly and with the Queen? How well did he estimate the importance of his work? Did the film gloss over too quickly these years of Vincent's mature experience? Or was it able to handle them well?

15. How moving were the sequences of his death? Why? The importance of his encounter with the novice at the end?

16. How inspirational a film was this? What values did it best present? Comment on its cinematic presentation of a saint. What techniques did it use to present Vincent as a saint: the black and white photography, the editing of the sequences, the close-ups of Vincent...?