Paulette Dubost's Parisian cheek and sly timing give her servants a life beyond their duties. We rate her most highly in Renoir's ensemble, where she has space to flirt, tease and complicate matters.
Fi1m perspective
In The Rules of the Game (1939), Paulette Dubost's Lisette flirts with an impudence that makes the servant as interesting to watch as anyone she serves. Her Parisian delivery and sly comic timing keep the character from becoming merely a pert chambermaid. We laughed at Lisette's cheek because Dubost gives her flirtation such unembarrassed confidence. Renoir's crowded comedy asks for concentration, and she gives us someone to follow through it.
Her early screen work, beginning in 1931, was in supporting soubrette parts in commercial comedies. Marcel Carné's Hôtel du Nord (1938), in which she plays Ginette, belongs to that first decade. Lisette was initially a small part, then grew substantially during the four-month shoot. Jean Renoir gave her room to work, and her impudence suits a film so attentive to small evasions. She makes Lisette funny without suggesting that everyone else's business should stop while she gets a laugh.
With Max Ophüls, she played Madame Fernande in Le Plaisir (1952) and Josephine, the maid, in Lola Montès (1955). The latter is a useful correction to any idea that her chief purpose was to supply cheek. Josephine is a calming presence beside Lola, which puts Dubost's easy, natural delivery to a gentler use. Ophüls keeps the camera moving through the circus spectacle, but we still find Lola herself frustratingly distant. A sympathetic maid cannot solve that, however welcome her company.
The later parts became mothers, managers and matriarchs, with the same earthy delivery. In François Truffaut's Le Dernier Métro (1980), she plays Germaine Fabre, dresser to Catherine Deneuve's character. Louis Malle's May Fools (1990) gives her Madame Vieuzac. Her long filmography also contains plenty of lesser commercial comedy, and the title role in Bécassine (1940) was a disappointment. Start with The Rules of the Game, and allow its busy opening a little patience.
Biography
Paulette Dubost was a French actress. Born Paulette Marie Emma Deplanque on 8 October 1910 in Paris, she began her career as a child dancer at the Paris Opera before moving into theatre and film.
She appeared in more than 150 films from the 1930s onwards. Her roles include Ginette in Hôtel du Nord (1938), Lisette in Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game (1939), Josephine the maid in Lola Montès (1955), and parts in The Last Metro (1980) and May Fools (1990). She also worked with directors including Marcel Carné, Max Ophüls and Louis Malle.
Dubost was married to André Ostertag from 1936 until their divorce. She died on 21 September 2011 in Longjumeau, France.
