I have always enjoyed watching this film. It is not a cinematographic work of art but the story enthralled me. It has recently been issued on DVD with a beautifully restored image quality. I am not old enough to remember Fernand Raynaud and know little about him but he is the driving force in this film, together with Julien Guiomar, one of the French actors whom I adore ! The story basically is one about a person from the Auvergne region of central France ( auvergnats are considered as being very money-conscious, like the Scots ) who learns he has inherited a vast sum of money and has to go to Strasbourg, in North Eastern France, to collect the money. He arrives in Strasbourg rather like a country bumpkin, collects his money and becomes fascinated by the buses there and decides to invest his newly found inheritance in one of the buses ! The rest is history ! This film exudes a sort of "joie-de-vivre" which is absent from today's films. Stasbourg is extremely well filmed in a crisp winter atmosphere and there are also forays across the border to Kehl in Germany. Whether you like the film depends on whether you like the actors ( which I do ) and I enjoyed seeing both Pierre Tornade and Michel Galabru ( another adorable actor ) in minor rôles. Poor old Michel Galabru has to play the policeman again, just as he had to do in "Les Sous-doués". Or should it be the other way round ? Next time I visit Strasbourg, I will be sure to take the Number 9 bus and count the passengers ( sorry, you'll have to have seen the film to understand that one !! ). If you've never seen Strasbourg, then watch this film, it'll give you a pretty good picture of the place !!!
Review of L'auvergnat et l'autobus
