'La Comedie Humaine', described by its author Honoré de Balzac as 'a natural history' of post-Napoleonic French society, is a panoramic and monumental work with a cast of hundreds, many of whom reappear throughout, prompting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's remark, 'I wouldn't know where to start.'
One could do worse than to start with 'Le Pere Goriot' which is part of a trilogy featuring Vautrin whose charismatic, seductive and enigmatic persona makes him one of literature's most unforgettable villains. By all accounts based upon Vidocq, a former convict who became chief of Paris police, he had been played by the brilliant Michel Simon in 1943 for Pierre Billon and in Robert Vernay's film he is portrayed by Pierre Renoir who brings to the role what one critic has referred to as his 'air of malevolence'. He is positively Mephistophelean and here the Faust is the young social climber Rastignac of Georges Rollin. The title character whose love for his ungrateful daughters echoes that of King Lear, is touchingly brought to life by Pierre Larquey.
Adaptor Charles Spaak has done well to condense the novel to a running time of just over 100 minutes, the production design of René Renoux is splendid whilst every character is beautifully observed. Looking at this and his earlier 'Comte de Monte Cristo' one wonders why director Vernay is all but forgotten now.
The shameless opportunism and self interest displayed here reflects the behaviour of many during the German Occupation and Vautrin's betrayal by informants could not fail to strike a chord with audiences at the time.
Not only was Balzac a master storyteller but also a keen and incisive observer whose view of humankind is distinctly unflattering whilst his observation that 'at the origin of every fortune lies a crime' is of course, timeless.
