Immediate background: Dréville's 1944 weepie "la Cage aux Rossignols" was a blockbuster in the Occupation years.It featured the boys choir "les Petits Chanteurs A La Croix de Bois" playing boarders in a reformatory.It was such a huge success it was remade some years back as "les Choristes" .
"Le Visiteur" features "Les Petits Chanteurs..." again.They are cast as boarders of an orphanage.A rehash? Pas du Tout.Whereas "La Cage aux Rossignols " is a dated tear-jerker ,"Le visiteur" is a somber meditation on heroes and villains,on childhood's lost illusions;it is Jean Dreville's most satisfying movies,and one of Pierre Fresnay's unfairly forgotten parts.
Around midnight at the orphanage..In the corridors of the house,in the darkest night ,up comes a man.Dréville,from the very start of his story,creates a mysterious haunting atmosphere.Who is this man? For the headmaster,it's the second coming!The messiah! He'd always told him he would come back some day.He was the pride of the orphanage ,a former pupil who became a celebrated lawyer.He is a God ,no less...There's in the house a place dedicated to him,with his pictures,flowers,decorations...It looks like an oratory! But the hero is not the one you think he is;the Police are hot on his heels,and he is looking for a refuge .Jean-Bernard Luc's screenplay avoids all the traps (no love scenes :the one woman who appears for a five-minute scene is a bitch and an informer;no easy way out: no miscarriage of justice,no wrong man trick) and is as demanding as a good film noir should be.
For the headmaster,it would be terrible ,unthinkable to tell his pupils the man they admire is a criminal;"I leave you the legend" Pierre Fresnay says before his night begins.These children ,who live in a fairy tale,which becomes a thriller in which they are involved ,these children who have no fathers to admire desperately need a model .The scene on the train in Paris is revealing.They would give everything to ride this train with their hero.And when the cops capture him,they help him to escape.
Sauval (check the name:it looks like the French verb "sauver" (save))has not become a criminal overnight.He's always been one .To climb the social ladder rung by rung,he had to push the others out of his way;he was not a lawyer who ,like a knight from the MIddle Ages ,used to protect widows and orphans .Even children were his victims.And even the money he sent to his old school was dirty money...But he and the headmaster will arrange things so that nobody among the children can hear the awful truth.
One of the boarders ,more mature,knows more things than his pals.A sublime shot shows the young teenager watching a bird in a cage ,then shedding a tear.Maybe he ,too,will pretend the legend is intact.He needs it.
The boys choir sings two French folk songs "A la Claire Fontaine" and "Trois Jeunes Tambours" and the French version of "Auld Lang Syne" as a moving finale.
