The funniest French comedy of the thirties? This one,definitely ; Full of witty lines, of crazy situations, from the beginning to the end , it's a feast!
Julien Carette and mainly Fernand Gravey - whose performances compare favorably with those ,brilliant too ,of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are absolutely extraordinary as musicians disguised as women in a female orchestra ;if this story rings a bell , you're right.
Two musicians have a habit of changing: dressed in gypsies with earrings in a boisterous tzigane czarda , made up in black (a la "the jazz singer") in a jazz band , latinos in a cuban combo ;but in 1935,female orchestras are a la mode ,and on the dole ,they are forced to join "the Tulips of Holland" ,an all-female orchestra that their matronly mannish leader rules with a rod of iron ;after hilarious rehearsals (to become a credible woman) , the gags are ongoing and inventive ; to conquer Gaby , the most gorgeous woman (an singer) of the band ,-more or less Marilyn Monroe's role in the remake - they invent a false brother and a false songwriter. Gaby is played by wonderful Australian actress Betty Stockfeld ,whose part should have been more developed : eventful night on a train , hotel where the false women try to outdo themselves in virtuosity to change their sex in the wink of an eye ; no fortune -hunters,as far the real girls are concerned , but a
good spanking for the theater manager ,in love with a false woman (like Ozgood in Wilder's movie), the authoritarian leader mistaken for a man whose hair is almost pulled out! The movie knows only one tempo:accelerated ,and even briefly introduces a caricature of a gay musician who longs to join a female group.
"Fanfare d'amour " German remake inspired Billy Wilder's famous masterpiece "some like it hot" ; if you 've enjoyed the 1959 version , (and who hasn't????),you MUST see "fanfare d'amour" which contains its seeds (Wilder and Diamond never gave it any credit , in spite of all the elements it borrows from Richard Pottier 's film) .Remember that circa 1934 , Wilder was in France where he made his very first movie "Mauvaise graine" and he may have heard of the film in the making.
In the French thirties when comedies were dominated by the coarse farces dealing with the joys (?) of the military service, "fanfare d'amour" is a miracle,an unsung gem you can watch several times !I second the first reviewer ,more than excellent :unique ,and ,yes,influential!!!
