Make a fool pray to God, or St. Francis has nothing to do with it. Very strange movie. The script is based on a play by mockingbird Marcel Eme. It started out well. The sufferings of impoverished aristocrats, working on knitting machines, dinner from a shot cat, etc., all filmed funny, with humor. Images are capacious: a faithful wife of Clarambar (Martin Sarsi), a half-ass son (Gerard Lartigaux), an angry mother-in-law (Lise Delamard).
But immediately after the visit of St. Francis, history began to change and very ugly. The harsh Clarambar (the frighteningly realistic Philip Noiret) took the precepts of Little Brother very strangely. Francis urged us to love our neighbors, nature, not to acquire, not to sin, etc. Klerambar seems to have fallen in love with stray dogs, but he remained as cruel as before with his relatives, with his loving wife he began to treat him like a pig. My son decided to marry a local prostitute. And about the Franciscan vow of poverty and humility, and there was no question, to dress in a garment hero Noir was in no hurry. In a word, after "enlightenment." Klerambar became even more violent. It's such a sad metamorphosis. The ending of the movie is crazy. Maybe it's the filmmakers' peculiar sense of humor that we couldn't get to the bottom of. And the time has not come when the Russian viewer will cynically laugh at such things as humanity, mercy, forgiveness and silveriness. Of course, it is common knowledge that yernitsky is part of the French national character, but still ...
An interesting detail, as in the crooked mirror in "Clerambara" refracts the plot of the earlier picture of the director Yves Robert "Lucky Alexander" or "Blessed Alexander", but if the adventures of Alexander (performed by the same Philip Noir), in general, quite harmless, then Clarembar, with his "rebellion without a cause" and ridiculous crushing of the basics, causes irritation and dislike.
Of the pluses (there were also such): the film is beautifully shot, summer, provincial France, birds sing, the characters live in the real castle of Chateau Marigny, walk through the old streets of the town of Semur-en-Osua, in Burgundy. Costumes, interiors, furnishings, all right, at a good level. Vladimir Kosma wrote wonderful, witty music, in the medieval style.
Another plus is a wonderful baby Dani Carrel, in the role of a cheerful whore. She had some pretty complicated, let’s say spicy lines and scenes, but Dani played it nicely and with a light. Her character was by far the prettiest.
P.S. "Clerambar" is beautiful visually, but not sound in the sense of the movie. Maybe you shouldn't have transferred the frugal, frivolous play of Marcel Aimee to the screen, what is funny in the theater, on film looks heavy, pompous and not funny.