In Maurice Gleize 's mediocre filmography ("le récif de corail" ,"légion d'honneur" "le club des soupirants" etc) "Graine au vent" is a notable exception ;in spite of a copy in need of restoration, it's an endearing offbeat melodrama.
A sculptor humiliates his wife who could have been a great pianist and who brings home the bacon, by giving music lessons; Their daughter , a little savage who's in awe of her daddy and despises her mom , does not care much about school and prefers to play hooky .The mother dies in childbirth and the father does not want to hear of the new baby he puts in the care of a nurse, a shrew .When the big sister dicovers what fate lies in store for the baby ,she decides to do something about it.
The father ,an artist ,is actually a selfish macho : when his wife is pregnant , he always talks about "your little brother" ;it would never occur to him it could be "a little sister" ,which eventually happens .When his wife dies in childbirth , he probably regrets the breadwinner ,not the woman .
Putting the blame on the new baby born ,he ruthlessly yells "take that away!" And the elder daughter , who was unpleasant in the first part , has to grow up overnight ; of course , the story fit well in the Occupation years when the family had to be glorified .But Lucie Delarue-Mardrus 's novel survived the zeitgeist "message" ; it had already been transferred to the screen in the silent age ...
Carlettina as the young "mommy" was the daughter of actress Louise Carletti ; good cast including Jacques Dumesnil as an egocentric sculptor who's got to learn to be a father ,Gisele Casadesus , as his frail unfortunate wife and Marcelle Géniat as a
good fairy of sorts .
The sculptures were made by real life artist Paul Belmondo ,who would sometimes take with him on the shootings , his little son.... Jean-Paul.
