Film still of Dragées au poivre (Pepper Candy) © RR
A comic fantasy film by Jacques Baratier
Dragées au Poivre (Sweet and Sour) is the great commercial success of the French film director, Jacques Baratier. The atypical and undeservingly unrecognised director was never where one expected him to be. This vocal, fantasy comedy is still surprising, with a choice casting call: Simone Signoret, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Monica Vitti, Francis Blanche, Claude Brasseur, Guy Bedos, Sophie Daumier, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Roger Vadim, to name but some of the actors.
Diane Baratier, the filmmaker's daughter, says it very well: her father loved to joke about situations. In Dragées au Poivre (Sweet and Sour) (1963), this irreverent filmmaker happily criticised the established order by making fun of the police, the French New Wave and the snobbery of the Cinéma Vérité. The only thing was that nobody was criticising the French New Wave at that time. In his film made up of sketches (which were written by Guy Bedos, who also starred in the film), which was a parody of the films produced by "Truffaut's gang", he dared and talked about the French Old Wave, Old Rain or New Rain, to refer to films by Chabrol, Rohmer, etc.
“Jacques Baratier was a visionary artist and imagined a world where everyone had their own camera in the film Sweet and Sour in 1963. 50 years later, his vision has become our daily life. ” Diane Baratier
The film director was against any form of authority, and had been considered to be an anarchist. This is not true of this crazy, yet endearing film, that you can rediscover in Cannes Classics.
A presentation by the CNC and the Association Jacques Baratier. Digitally restored using 2K scanning of the 35mm negatives, by Mikros Image.
