Bouquet de joie

A vehicle for famous singer Charles Trénet ,"bouquet de joie" is more a film made of sketches than a real story ; The artist's sometimes larger than the screen ,particularly in the final concert , which will grab you even though you are not one of his fans: "the fou chantant" (=the singing fool)is absolutely mind-boggling on stage ,really unique ,like Piaf ,Brel or Gainsbourg ;his songs were covered by many people from Sinatra to Cooke ; "la mer" became a big hit for Bobby Darin as "beyond the sea" ; in the film , only "l'âme des poètes" is widely known .

As for the rest of the film ,the mini-story of Jean Lefèvre (who would become very popular from the sixties on),who serves in the first sequence ,as a foil to the singer , is enjoyable:his misadventures ,as he 's heading for the French Riviera with his pretty wife ,are quite funny: a night in a seedy room and another one in a police station, isn't it a nice start for a vacation? Besides , Lefèvre's stupefied looks often made him cast as an idiot in most of his films :here,he's a (not very credible) engineer.

Henri Poupon' s sketch ,written by the actor himself ,represents the older fan who waits for his idol as if it were the second coming : and he's not alone .

There's an interlude, which shows how people on holiday in Juan-Les-Pins , used to entertain,notably a strip tease act where men are armed with fishing rods(!)

But the film would have been better , had the director filmed a complete concert.