La symphonie pastorale (1946)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Jean Delannoy

Writers:

André Gide (novel)
Jean Aurenche (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

22 September 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A minister falls in love with a blind young woman he sheltered, but so does his son. |

Plot Keywords:

Minister | Beautiful Woman | Blindness | Blind Girl | Love Triangle

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Michèle Morgan	...	Gertrude
Pierre Blanchar	...	Le pasteur Jean Martens
Line Noro	...	Amélie Martens - sa femme
Jean Desailly	...	Jacques Martens - son fils
Andrée Clément	...	Piette Castéran
Jacques Louvigny	...	Castéran (as Louvigny)
Rosine Luguet	...	Charlotte Martens
Mona Dol	...	Soeur Claire
Robert Demorget	...	Pierre Martens
Hélène Dassonville	...	Mademoiselle de la Grange
Germaine Michel	...	La vieille paysanne
Florence Brière	...	Une amie de Gertrude
Albert Glado	...	Paul Martens

Runtime:

110 min | Germany:95 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Klangfilm-Eurocord)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Château-d'Oex, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland

Company:

Les Films Gibé

Movie Connections:

Version of Den-en kôkyôgaku (1938)

Powerful if sometimes overwrought melodrama about power, temptation and corruption

I had read this in high school French class and am a warm fan of Michelle Morgan, so I rented this recently. For those looking or a comedy, this is the wrong choice.

This is the story of a stuffy, humorless and unimaginative married Protestant pastor with several children near a small village in the Swiss Alps,who one day, takes in a little blind girl who has just lost her mother. He raises and teaches the girl everything - and in the process gradually falls in love with her as she becomes an adult, to the great alarm of his family. His denials that he has fallen in love with her - and that he has done all he can to deny her a life independent of the family in order to keep her there, dependent on him and grateful to him, are the source of the drama.

The movie is very grim. The pastor is someone any viewer will grow to hate within 5 minutes of the movie! Narrow, self-satisfied, pompous, haughty toward wife, family and congregation, he is truly unlikeable. At times, the dialogue is over the top. At times, the viewer is frustrated because if the pastor's son, or the blind girl, only articulated clearly what they wanted without this terrible deference to the lying pastor, the situation would be averted.

All that said, the movie has its power. Michelle Morgan is lovely and sweet. The viewer will remember this one.