Pastoral Symphony (film)

For the French novel, see La Symphonie pastorale.

Pastoral Symphony
film poster
Directed by	Jean Delannoy
Produced by	Joseph Bercholz Edouard Gide
Written by	Jean Aurenche
Based on	Pastoral Symphony by André Gide
Starring	Pierre Blanchar Michèle Morgan Jean Desailly
Music by	Georges Auric
Cinematography	Armand Thirard
Edited by	Suzette Bouveret
Production company	Les Films Gibé
Distributed by	Pathé Consortium Cinéma
Release dates	September 1946 (1946-09) (Cannes Film Festival)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Pastoral Symphony (French: La Symphonie pastorale) is a 1946 French drama film directed by Jean Delannoy and starring Michèle Morgan, Pierre Blanchar and Jean Desailly.

The film is based on the novella La Symphonie Pastorale by André Gide and adapted to the screen by Jean Aurenche.It was shot at the Neuilly Studios in Paris with sets designed by the art director René Renoux. Location shooting took place around Rossinière in Switzerland. The film's score was by Georges Auric. At the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, it won the Grand Prix (equivalent of the Palme d'Or) and the Best Actress award for Michèle Morgan.

It was the film chosen to be shown at the opening gala of the Cameo cinema in Edinburgh, Scotland, in March 1949, and a rare surviving print with English subtitles was shown there again in 2009 to celebrate the film's 60th anniversary, courtesy of the BFI.

Plot summary

The pastor of a mountain village adopts a small blind girl, Gertrude. As Gertrude grows up into an attractive young woman, the pastor, now middle-aged, realises that he is in love with her. To his chagrin, his adopted son, Jacques, is also in love with Gertrude, even though he is shortly to be married to another woman.

Jacques's fiancée is jealous of Gertrude and arranges for her to see a doctor in the hope that she might be cured and to enable Jacques to choose equally between the two women.

Miraculously, Gertrude's sight is restored and she returns to the village a changed woman. Unable to accept Jacques' love and disappointed by the pastor's affections for her, she realises that her former happiness has been lost forever.

This film supplies a second, deeper meaning. The blind girl comes to dominate the pastor's consciousness as he guides her from being the brutish creature seen in our first glimpse of her, into an accomplished and attractive young woman. His obsession with her damages his family life. There is no indication of carnal attraction between the pastor and her; she is his spiritual creation. This alternative interpretation, then, is that the blind girl is a kind of demon (as suggested by her first appearance) who takes over his consciousness, with the result of wrecking his family life and marring his surface saintliness. This meaning is cued for us by his wife's slowly growing worry.

Cast

• Michèle Morgan as Gertrude
• Pierre Blanchar as Le pasteur Jean Martens
• Line Noro as Amélie Martens - sa femme
• Jean Desailly as Jacques Martens - son fils
• Andrée Clément as Piette Castéran
• Jacques Louvigny as Castéran
• Rosine Luguet as Charlotte Martens
• Mona Dol as Soeur Claire
• Robert Demorget as Pierre Martens
• Hélène Dassonville as Mademoiselle de la Grange
• Germaine Michel as La vieille paysanne
• Florence Brière as Une amie de Gertrude
• Albert Glado as Paul Martens

Bibliography

• Crisp, Colin. French Cinema—A Critical Filmography: Volume 2, 1940–1958. Indiana University Press, 2015.
• Leahy, Sarah & Vanderschelden, Isabelle. Screenwriters in French cinema. Manchester University Press, 2021.

External links

• Pastoral Symphony at IMDb
• La Symphonie Pastorale at AllMovie
• La Symphonie Pastorale at filmsdefrance.com