Heartbeat

"Le Schpountz" (1938) is a French comedy by Marcel Pagnol — watch it online on iFILM. Fernandel, the rubber-faced star of prewar French cinema, plays Irène Fabre, a grocer's assistant who is completely certain he was born to act.

When a film crew passes through his provincial town, they find the perfect mark. A fake contract sends Irène to Paris with a suitcase full of ambition and precisely zero screen presence. "Schpountz" is film-crew slang for exactly this kind of true believer. Pagnol directs with dry warmth rather than mockery, which is why the ending lands the way it does. Watch "Le Schpountz" (1938) online on iFILM.