I spent the last two hours watching the Region-2 BFI DVD of LA KERMESSE HEROÏQUE aka CARNIVAL IN FLANDERS, which I believe TCM is showing tomorrow night. I hadn't seen the film in over ten years and I'd forgtten a lot of it, like the gay Spanish soldier and his needlework, the rather graphic rape and pillage fantasy of the Burgermaster, and the funny, lusty sequence where the innkeeper's wife tends to the Spanish soldiers. The print is good, but the film really needs Criterion to give it new, unexpurgated subtitles in yellow so they stand out against the whites on the screen.
The film is beautiful to look at, a stunning recreation of Flanders in 1616 and it has great set pieces, like the ladies meeting the Spaniards with the key to the city and the soldiers' march away at the end. Francoise Rosay as Cornelia, the Burgermaster's wife with dreams she'll never realize, runs the show. She's not a beautiful woman but she is stunning lady and a beautiful actress, with some outrageous moments as well as some very moving ones. And what did occur between her and the Spanish Duke? I can't believe they thought there was a musical in this film, and like THE BAKER'S WIFE, they really couldn't make it a successful musical.
If you've never seen this French farce where the ladies settle amicably a potential invasion their stupid husbands can't face, check out the times for TCM and catch it.
