Movies

GOUPI MAINS ROUGES

Jacques Becker’s second film, made in 1943, during the German occupation of France, suggests an air of corruption and menace beneath the folksy drama of a prodigal son returning from the city to his rustic home. The story concerns the Goupi clan, which runs just about everything in a farm village and is preparing to receive Eugène (Georges Rollin), a dandyish businessman called Monsieur, who has been summoned by his father (Arthur Devère), a tightwad innkeeper, on family business. The drama is set in motion by a practical joke—Monsieur’s uncle (Fernand Ledoux), the Red Hands of the title, a mean-spirited and misanthropic poacher, waylays him en route from the train station and leaves him to his own devices in the countryside—which turns serious when the family’s centenarian patriarch is found dead, a hidden bankroll vanishes, the domineering matriarch is murdered, and Monsieur finds himself accused. Becker’s droll and meticulous observation of a wide range of characters—including Tonkin (Robert Le Vigan), an overbearing soldier returned from Indochina, and Mayflower (Blanchette Brunoy), the girl he loves, who is supposed to marry Monsieur—also reveals the country folk’s deep-rooted venality, violence, and tribalism, together with a code of secrecy that conveys the desperate wartime mood. In French.—Richard Brody (Film Forum; Sept. 2.)