This is worth watching for Horst Buchholz and Leslie Caron. The film itself is a sort of pastiche of French life in Marseille, based on the overrated work of Marcel Pagnol who sentimentalized beyond belief and during many years ( less now ) was a popular author. It is supposed to be taken seriously as a love story but frankly it is all over acted and has little sense of reality to it. Irritatingly the relentless music is based on a musical and that sense of an unsung musical blights the reality. The story is basically the love between Fanny and Marius, but sadly much as I appreciate both actors there is just hyperventilating and too much ' acting ' in the scenes of passion. Both Buchholz and Caron have little chemistry together ( see Caron in ' The L-Shaped Room ' for real desire and two people who suffer through loving ), and Buchholz ( one of the most beautiful men in cinema ) looks distinctly detached. But as I said it is still worth seeing just to see them. Boyer and Chevalier try to give authentic colour. Boyer is by far the best actor who I respect enormously, but I do not respond to the stereotypes that Chevalier makes of French men, and if proof is needed of that just seriously listen to his final song in ' Gigi '. Those who have genuine good memories of this semi-lost film will not like this review, but we all have the right to analyse films from different perspectives. For those who appreciate male beauty Buchholz never looked better, and for some obscure reason the beauty of Leslie Caron and him do not go together. If you watch a real satire on French society and delightful exaggeration track down a copy of the 1948 ' Clochemerle '.
Review of Fanny
