In the early nineteen forties Simone Signoret nominated Tino Rossi and Jacques Trenet as her favourite singers; in 1949 she fell head-over-heels for Yves Montand and in 1951 she married him. Montand, of course, left both of them for dead which in Rossi's case wasn't that hard, probably even Vaughan Munroe, the Singing Sweat-Gland could have done so had he put his mind to it. Rossi belongs to the Johnny Mathis school of vocalists that sound as though they've had a metatarsal surgically removed from the wrist and are mentally singing in a Balenciaga cocktail number. Here, he plays Schubert and loses hands down. Marcel Pagnol has written one of his staples and in a conceit centred it on a real-life person albeit one thrust into a fictional situation. He cast his own wife Jacqueline as the miller's daughter who 'inspires' Schubert but prefers bank-notes to those on a treble clef. Lots of lovely scenery lovingly shot, mill wheels abound as do meadows, flowers and brooks. As a romantic lead Rossi was about as effective as Louis de Funes who was probably a better singer because, let's face it, he couldn't be worse.
Review of La belle meunière
