La vocation d'André Carel

Andre Carel (with accent marks) is the son of a rich father. He never has had to work and he hasn't and as a consequence has gone literally mad with boredom, so mad that his old tutor, played by the wonderful Michael Simon near the beginning of his career, has been recalled to service as a warden.

Andre takes a fancy to a girl of the petite bourgeoisie, and decides to see if she would like him without his money. He gets a job working on the barge owned by her father, transporting stones across Lake Lucerne and not only wins the girl, but discovers health, happiness and usefulness.

We get to see sailboats and the scenery around Lake Lucerne. Very pretty. Michel Simon works hard at producing one of his amazing cinematic grotesques. Other than these two features, the film is a flat failure: the script is humorless, there is almost no tension and, indeed, very little movement. As the film finished its first seventy minutes, I became convinced it was shot by a portrait photographer. In the final section there are signs of movement, but it looks as if it was done by lifting bits from the movies of Louis Lumiere: 'Lancement d'un navire à la Ciotat', say. Look at Louis Lumiere's works.... and Michel Simon's later stuff. Avoid this one.