The April Fools 

Directed By:  Stuart Rosenberg
Starring:  Jack Lemmon, Catherine Deneuve, Peter Lawford, Myrna Loy, Charles Boyer
Studio:  
IMDB Rating:  6

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No one would confuse Ernst Lubitsch’s 1939 masterpiece Ninotchka with the 1969 comedy The April Fools starring Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve.  On the surface the 2 films have nothing in common.  Ninotchka is a farce with cutting social commentary about communism, consumerism and national identity, while April Fools, directed by Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke ’68), comments on the dichotomy between work and play and the urban rat race versus suburban boredom.  While Ninotchka’s tag line, “Garbo Laughs,” resonated around the world, based on Garbo’s string of 1930’s films that focused on triumph (Queen Christina) and tragedy (Camille), but seldom humor, it also bookended her 1931 speaking debut in Anna Christie (’31), which was promoted with “Garbo talks!”  In between, Garbo’s incredible beauty and often stoic performances allowed viewers to project their emotions onto her characters, giving them emotion depth beneath a placid exterior.  Deneuve’s work throughout the 1960’s was similar to Garbo’s ‘30’s films, but with more psycho-sexual overtones (Repulsion ‘65, Belle De Jour ‘67) and even her candy-coated work with Jacque Demy (Umbrellas of Cherbourg & The Young Girls of Rochefort) was overlayed with sadness and regret.  The April Fools was Deneuve’s first English language film and Rosenberg went out of his way to photograph her laughing and smiling, often in singular close ups and medium shots.  As if trying to penetrate Deneuve’s ‘ice queen’ personae, Rosenberg essentially inserts bemused reactions to the Jack Lemmon induced chaos around her.  Had The April Fools used the tagline “Deneuve laughs” nobody would have blinked an eye, but it really is a marked difference in performance style from her early work with directors Roman Polanski, Luis Bunuel, Francois Truffaut and others. 

​Lemmon plays a haggard corporate climber, willing to forgo his personality to get ahead, while living an emotionless existence in suburban Connecticut, awash in dinner parties, cocktail parties and enough psychobabble to drown a cat, or the mangy dog who hates its owner. When he arrives at his boss’s swanky apartment in a Manhattan skyscraper, expecting a one-on-one meeting to secure his next promotion, he instead walks into a swinging party, complete with hipsters, posers and wannabes, each determined to ‘out-cool’ everyone else.  Lemmon’s Howard Brubaker is a fish out of water who floats through the party, finally paraphrasing his bosses come on line “I’m Brubaker, can I buy you a drink” to a pretty blonde at the bar.  She misinterprets his line, grabs her coat and they leave.  Of course, the blonde is Deneuve and what follows is a night shared where a tender relationship grows.  Sprinkled throughout are bizarre coincidences, including cameos by Myrna Loy & Charles Boyer, as wealthy eccentrics, she an amateur fortune teller & he a budding fencer. Perception versus reality links the couple as Brubaker attempts to seduce Catherine, only to recant several lies and reveal his truth as a sad and pathetic poser.  Catherine, who withholds her last name throughout (she’s the boss’s wife), initially is merely amused by Brubaker, but begins to see a kindred soul, everything her husband (Peter Lawford) is not.

​If the first act is the party and the second act is the evening together, the third act devolves into full on farce as Brubaker attempts to reunite with Catherine, while dealing with the troubles of the New York to Connecticut commuter lifestyle. As noted, there is constant chaos around Brubaker, but Catherine is the sun around which to film revolves.  Yes, Deneuve laughs, but it is her quiet and controlled centering of the movie that makes the rest of it work.  While she is her typically reticent character, allowing actions, emotions and ideas to flow towards her, Deneuve instills in Catherine a warmth unlike many of her earlier work.  In her diaries she notes that “the film never really started for me” due to a certain discomfort with filming in America, she once again creates an emotional rich character by focusing on little gestures, line readings and stillness.  I think Deneuve’s ultimate talent is her ability to allow the viewer to watch her; no histrionics, no broad strokes or mugging, but simple refined elegance.
The April Fools is no Ninotchka, and very much a movie of its time, but Deneuve and Lemmon make an interesting couple, obviously mis-matched, but their contrasting styles draw out nuances of their abilities that are wholly enjoyable.  In this case, the princess and the frog are well matched.