L'amant de Bornéo

In its first decade of talkies,French screenplays were often plays.Some of the best directors did it that way:Sacha Guitry and Marcel Pagnol are the first names that come to mind.

When the play was good,funny,the "filmed stage production" was often worthwhile: Lehmann/Autant-Lara's "Fric Frac" (feat .Arletty,Fernandel and Michel Simon) or Roger Richebé's hilarious "Madame Sans-Gene" (Arletty again)were gems.

"L'amant de Borneo" was not a very good material.The first part drags on and on.The music hall sequence ,notably ,is much too long :it displays Arletty's talents as a dancer,singer and... conjurer.Actually her song ("Je Crois que C'est Arrivé" = "I guess it happened") would have been enough.The scenes in the wings are boring as well ,as men pay court to the star,Stella Losange.One of them,Lucien,(Jean Tissier) is a bookseller.He knows he does not stand a chance.So he pretends he is a globe-trotter ,a raider ,some kind of Indiana Jones...And things get a little better.

He takes up residence in a friend's house which he completely transforms into an exotic mansion ,complete with statuettes,curare arrows,bears (the bear 's name is "Barometer"),monkeys,snakes (sold by the meter) ,trinkets bought in a dime store... He invites Stella and treats her to a delicious meal including caterpillars.Stella is proud of her lover from Borneo (hence the title)..But she would like to share his dangerous life ,to travel all around the world...There's the rub.

It's funny -in places- but it's often ponderous and silly.Lines are occasionally witty,but it is a far cry from Henri Jeanson's work! "L'amant de Borneo" should be reserved for Arletty's fans only.Anyway,for her,greater glories were shortly to follow ("les Visiteurs du Soir" and "les Enfants du Paradis")