Pierre Etaix, un destin animé (2011 TV Movie) User Reviews

Worthwhile Documentary On Underrated French Comedian

[lchadbou-326-26592 · 6/10 · 15 March 2014]

For those who have never seen a Pierre Etaix film,or for those who have and want to learn more about him, this hour long program, which is featured in the recent Criterion DVD set on that auteur, is well worthwhile. It was directed by his wife Odile and features interview material with many of his collaborators. One thing I learned right away is that the proper pronunciation (often a problem with French names) is ey-TEX not ey-TEY. Etaix narrates, telling us first about his interest in clowns, the circus, and the music hall, though the actor Lon Chaney's ability to put on fake faces was an early influence from the movies. His screenwriter collaborator Jean Claude Carriere who would later work with Luis Bunuel and Louis Malle among others, credits Etaix with teaching him about film and cites their shared enthusiasm for several other movie people, Buster Keaton as well as Laurel and Hardy.We move on to Etaix's participation with Jacques Tati, for whom he created gags and drawings not to mention the designs for the contrasting old and new houses in "My Uncle," which are such an important part of that work.Before he made his "Yoyo," Etaix was impressed by Federico Fellini's "8 1/2," though he also drew on memories of the early French comedian Max Linder.(The story was based on the real incident of a Rothschild scion hiring a circus to entertain in his mansion.) Two non-film influences are presented along the way: his beautiful native landscape of Roannes, which affected the way he showed nature in his movies, and the stained glass windows of a local modern artist, Hanssen. At this point we meet someone who was influenced BY Etaix, namely Jerry Lewis.The scenes in which they express their fondness for each other are the most moving in this documentary. Etaix analyzes some of the factors that went into the success of his movies, though he now feels some of the music he used was redundant and that one of his acting troupe, Denise Peronne (whom he borrowed from Tati, a sort of French Martita Hunt) never quite got what he wanted her to do.All of the earlier films were carefully plotted in advance, but his rare stint into documentary, "The Land Of Milk And Honey," especially relied on the use of editing to shape the loosely shaped footage. We meet Annie Fratellini, from a family of clowns, whom he married and with whom he would open a school. The documentary, as well as the Criterion set, leave out a later TV film that Etaix directed and starred in, "L'Age De Monsieur Est Avance" (Monsieur Is Getting Old) that I have so far been able to find only an unsubtitled copy of.Otherwise it gives quite a nice, detailed portrait of this major filmmaker.