Alternate Best Actor 1932: Michel Simon in Boudu Saved from Drowning

Michel Simon did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying the titular character of Boudu Saved From Drowning. 

Boudu follows the interactions between a hobo and the family whose patriarch saved the man from drowning. 

Now with that brief synopsis you may be thinking this is some heartwarming story about the rich and poor coming together, and learning from each other. Well you'd be dead wrong, as it is a film by Jean Renoir after all who wasn't typically about the easiest answers. Rather this is a social satire personified most in the character of Boudu, who you may think is one thing in the opening scenes of the film, however again you'd be dead wrong. As the idiosyncratic Michel Simon, who at the very least always stood out as a screen presence no matter where or when he showed up by the sheer one of a kind nature of his face, first appears as a hobo we see lounging around a park. And while there seems the innate sympathy to be created as his dog runs away after he tells the dog to leave him alone while he's eating, even how he reacts isn't quite what you'd expect. It is though the one moment where his character seems even in mild distress as he asks a policeman if he's seen his dog, only to be aggressively scared away lest he be arrested. What speaks more to the character is Simon sitting on a park bench, seemingly somewhat dejected, until a young girl, prompted by his mother, gives him money for a meal. Simon's reaction to this is of a cold confusion and even annoyance and not at all a loving man you might expect. And we see his Boudu almost immediately give away the food to a random mean with a callous sort of anger before going off to jump in the river, seemingly to commit suicide. His attempt is prevented by the wealthy man Edouard Lestingois (Charles Granval) who saves him from drowning and takes him into his home with his wife Emma (Marcelle Hainia) and his maid Chloe (Severine Lerczinska), whom Edouard also is having an affair with. 

The man being taken into the home is where the film begins and Simon's performance becomes the center of the film as this man exists outside of his world now living in the confined space of the rich. And while one might again presume this instead will be about how cruel and careless the rich are, that really isn't the case either as Boudu along with Simon's portrayal, is that of a man of chaos. Simon's physical performance is brilliant because everything he does paints a man essentially out of sorts with everything around him. Although what is so remarkable is how Simon embodies this into every aspect of his work, not just one. His face expresses a constant kind of discomfort, or a nasty sort of dismay. His chest seems always too tight within his now fancier clothes, his way of walking about the house even has an awkwardness as he almost kicks every step, likely a child bored but it doesn't really end there. Simon's constantly doing something physically, and it is captivating because every choice further illustrates the nature of Boudu in this situation. There's weird moments quite frankly of him even sitting between a door frame, which is amazing work by Simon because it feels so natural within his performance, though not natural within the setting. Every glance towards his rich host, every random spit, there is something so uniquely eye-catching about what Simon does, that makes him not just out of place, but actively trying to almost destroy the sense of place. And there really is the key to this performance, and the story as a whole. As this is not the case of the rich mistreating the poor, though there is certainly a disconnect, rather it is this story of a chaotic force being introduced into the tightly ordered constructed society of the house. 

Simon does not make you want to like Boudu, in fact you might find him as deplorable as the rich family does at certain points, though equally so, Simon does make there just something so captivating about the man even in his strangeness. Boudu spits randomly in the house, and scoffs at any redirection. He acts lustful towards both the wife and maid, which only exacerbates after he shaves his large beard. Simon's performance is piercing in its aggressiveness, of the man who constantly pesters and prods rather than enjoys. The man is incapable of existing in this more structured state, and Simon portrays a vicious disregard for all that he sees. There is something very specific within the performance though that makes him not exactly hateful with any sense for cause or passion, he's not some true anarchist or hippie breakdown the confines of society. Boudu is Boudu, who is a man who strives to exist within his world, his way with disregard for anyone or anything that gets in his way. Simon's performance brings to life this sense of the unwieldy, animalistic and callous. He never makes you care about Boudu, but he does make him so idiosyncratic in his state as a man that it becomes difficult to not watch him. In a way what his Boudu is, is like Laurel and Hardy, or Chaplin, as the men who are so unlikely themselves that it causes intense friction if not explosion against the society they are within. The difference though is Boudu's not comical, at least not in an overt charming way, and his behaviors always reeks of intention in his actions and is not accidental in his nonconformity. There isn't some secret that makes him who he is, there is some great change, even as he visually changes throughout, he is who he is and always is that, as this agent of individualistic chaos against everything that isn't his exact existence. A strange idea, that is realized effortlessly by Simon, who doesn't charm you or entertain you really, but rather he just fascinates you.