The Moviegoer

Telling you all the hilarious things you will find in "Carnival in Flanders" at the Fine Arts would be impossible in the short space at hand. This piece, produced in France as "La Kermesse Heroique," won the Grand Prix du Cinema Francais, and the Venice International Exposition Gold Medal. And it richly deserves them

There is something deliciously subtle and sharp in the French sense of humor, especially when it deals with the relationships between la femme et I'homme. And this is what "Carnival In Flanders" (time, 1618) is about: the "heroic" resistance the women in a Flemish town put up against the Spanish Duke come to sack the village--by pretending that the pompous, ineffectual mayor is dead and going therefore into mourning! The picture is replete with hilarious situation, good lines (there are English titles), and piercing caricatures. Alerme as the Burgomaster, Francoise Rosay as his wife, significantly listed in the cast as "Madame Burgomaster," and Louis Jouvet as the sanctimonious, swirking friar who with tongue in check calls a gift of sweetmeats to himself "an homage to God," are all in the best French high comedy manner.

Possibly the only objection one could find to "Carnival in Flasders" is that there are traces of drama in the beginning which mislead one, for the whole thing turns into high comedy. Jacques Feyder's direction is well paced and takes full advantage of every situation, but the semi-serious tone of the first few scenes leaves one unprepared for the satire to follow. On retrospection, Madame Burgomaster's harangue, "Femmes! Femmes! Our men have failed us!" is seen as a keen stroke of burlesque, but at the time it looks like drama overdone. This is but a minor fault in the long run, however, for the picture as a whole is overwhelmingly funny.