Topaze

I saw this play on Swedish television 42 years ago and I still remember many of the lines. The play made an everlasting impression and was very influential on my future development. A shy but righteous teacher – Topaze - with no social skills what so ever, through a series of events, gradually become aware of the realities of human societies and finally learns to master the rules at level far superior to his former mentor, Laurent Castel-Benac, excellently played by Holger Löwenadler. One of Sweden's best actors ever, the now deceased Allan Edwall is very convincing as Albert Topaze and the former mistress of Castel-Benac and later of Topaze is well played by Margaretha Krook, a person with a fair amount of self-criticism. They story is quite funny without ever loosing track of its main objective – making people aware of human nature. This film ought to be a compulsory part of the curricula for becoming a bureaucrat anywhere in the world.