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‘Elle t’aime trop, et moi, pas assez’: Jacques Feyder’s Melodramatic mise en scène of Female Desire in Pension Mimosas (1935)

2019; Oxford University Press; Volume: 73; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/fs/knz011

1468-2931

Barry Nevin,

French Literature and Critical Theory

By the end of 1934, Jacques Feyder had led a distinguished career in French silent cinema, had directed a critically acclaimed adaptation of Émile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin (1928) in Berlin, had returned from a three-year contract in Hollywood, had brought Le Grand Jeu to the screen (the greatest box-office success of the 1933–34 season), and appeared to be virtually unstoppable as he proceeded to direct his next film, Pension Mimosas. The film was described by one critic as ‘sans aucun doute l’une des œuvres les plus attendues de la saison prochaine’ and would rank as the season’s seventh-highest box-office success.1 Popular enthusiasm for Pension Mimosas, ostensibly a maternal melodrama, was doubtless sparked by its incendiary portrayal of female quasi-incestuous desire. The narrative centres on Louise (Françoise Rosay) and Gaston Noblet (Henri Alerme), co-owners of a boarding house located in a town identified by Jean A. Gili as Menton.2 Louise and Gaston have been raising a young boy, Pierre (Bernard Optal), whose biological father (Eddy Debray) returns in 1924 to claim him upon completing a prison sentence. Between 1924 and 1934, Louise continues to receive letters from Pierre, now based in Paris and nicknamed Baccara (played by Paul Bernard), repeatedly requesting money which he is using to settle his own gambling debts and to satisfy the demands of his exploitative girlfriend, Nelly (Lise Delamare). When Pierre informs Louise in 1934 that he is sick in an effort to secure more money, Louise travels to Paris and delivers Pierre an ultimatum: return to live in the boarding house or renounce all financial assistance. Louise eventually grants the melancholy Pierre permission to invite Nelly to move in also. During the remainder of the film, Louise refashions her own appearance, simultaneously expressing her own efforts to recapture her adopted son’s transient innocence and her growing romantic affection for him.