Clerambard 1969

In a crumbling medieval castle, the penniless Count Hector de Clérémbard, Philippe Noiret, tyrannizes his wife, his son Octave, and his mother-in-law. Their income comes from knitting pullovers and whatever meat he can shoot nearby, leaving the family dependent on his sporadic schemes. The local lawyer, Maître Galuchon, Claude Piéplu, offers to wipe away the Count’s vast debts if Octave will marry the eldest of his three daughters: the youngest is a beauty, the next pretty, and the eldest a fright. While the Count is eager to seize this convenient solution, Octave rebels. Though he has never been able to afford her, he is in love with La Langouste, the town’s prostitute, Dany Carrel.

Gustalin, a neighboring farmer fed up with his livestock disappearing to the Count’s gun, decides to give him a fright. Dressing as St. Francis of Assisi, he suddenly appears before him and presents a book detailing the saint’s deeds, a moment that sparks a profound shift. On reading it, the Count renounces worldly goods and, after selling the castle to Maître Galuchon, decides to hit the road with his family in a gypsy caravan, choosing a life of simplicity, poverty, and a closer bond with nature. If Octave truly loves La Langouste, why shouldn’t he marry her? She is half-convinced about retiring from her trade and even offers Octave a free session.

When Galuchon arrives to sign the deed for the sale of the castle, he brings his three daughters: Etienette Galuchon, Françoise Arnaud; Louise, Martine Sarcey; and Evelyne Galuchon, Josiane Lévêque. Octave, emboldened by his experience with La Langouste, takes the youngest into the empty caravan and later tells Galuchon that he will marry her in return for an annual allowance. The Count is sorry that La Langouste has been jilted and says she can join them in the caravan anyway.

Gustalin reappears to say that he is sorry to have misled the Count, who has now lost his castle, but the Count doesn’t mind as he is set on his new life. In the town square, two angels are seen harnessing his horse to the caravan, and the entire town follows the procession out into the countryside.