Fanchon the Cricket is a 1915 film directed by James Kirkwood and starring Mary Pickford.
It is a loose adaptation of George Sand novel La Petite Fadette. The setting is rural 19th century France. Pickford plays Fanchon, a sort of wild child who lives in the woods with her grandma, who has been cast out of the nearby village on suspicion of being a witch. Fanchon is a high-spirited child of nature who loves splashing about in streams and running through the woods, but she is also lonely and yearning for affection.
Enter Landry Barbeau, a tall, handsome bachelor and citizen of the village. Landry is engaged to the conventionally pretty Madelon, but when he meets exciting and gorgeous Fanchon he's immediately attracted to her. Eventually he asks Fanchon to marry her, but Landry's father, patriarch of the richest family in town, categorically refuses to let his son marry a dirt-poor girl who lives in a shack in the woods.
This film is the answer to a trivia question in that it's the only movie that featured all three Pickford siblings: Mary, Lottie, and Jack. Lottie and Jack Pickford weren't as big stars as their sister but both acted in several films in the silent era. (Lottie plays Madelon, while Jack is the bully who picks on Landry's dimwitted brother.)
Tropes:
- All of the Other Reindeer: The other young people of the village mock Fanchon for her shabby clothes, her weird grandma, and her unconventional lifestyle. Everyone laughs at her when she shows up at the maypole for the dance, even though she's changed out her rags for a pretty dress of her mother's that her grandma kept for years.
- Bedsheet Ghost: Didier runs to Fanchon's shack and tells her that the people of the village are coming to throw her in the river. Fanchon takes a sheet from her shack to make herself a bedsheet ghost. Unbelievably, the people of the village fall for this, fleeing in terror.
- Brain Fever: Landry is laid low with a fever, and the doctor thinks that the only thing that can save him is Fanchon's presence. So, Landry's snobbish father is forced to give up, Fanchon is brought into the Barbeau household, she and Landry are reunited, and Landry is miraculously cured.
- Cactus Cushion: The opening scene in which high-spirited wild child Fanchon rolls around in the grass laughing, ends when she rolls over onto a cactus.
- Establishing Character Moment: The introductory title card calls Fanchon "the little wild girl of the woods", and if that isn't establishing enough, Fanchon is then shown rolling around in the grass and laughing.
- Genki Girl: Fanchon is full of energy, running around everywhere. She rolls around in the grass and splashes through the stream. She dances with her own shadow. She's so energetic that she can't just sit on a wooden fence, she has to bounce up and down on the beam while she sings.
- Hollywood Darkness: A scene with a title card that says "At night" shows the screen tinted blue but everything still perfectly visible. This was a common practice in the silent era.
- Literal Ass-Kicking: Fanchon's fight with the town bully ends with her decisively winning and kicking said bully in the butt.
- Meet Cute: Fanchon throws rocks at the village girls who are mocking her. Madelon, one of those girls, sends Landry after Fanchon. As he's looking around she sneaks up behind him and pokes him in the thigh with a thorn.
- No Name Given: The town bully played by Jack Pickford, who picks on Didier and later mocks Landry for dating Fanchon, is never named.
- One-Hour Work Week: You'd think the people of a French farming village would be busy farming, or shoeing horses or churning butter or weaving clothes or whatever. But nobody ever works. The young people of the village spend all their time having picnics and dancing around maypoles.
- Parental Marriage Veto: Mr. Barbeau categorically refuses to let his son Landry marry the dirt-poor, rebellious Fanchon.
- P.O.V. Cam: Used in the rather peculiar ending. After the scene where Fanchon comes to Landry's sickbed and he's apparently healed simply by her presence, the film cuts to a wheat field for the last scene. The camera shows Fanchon skipping through the wheat, before turning and looking straight into the camera and flashing a smile and a come-hither look. Presumably the camera is showing Landry's perspective, but nothing in the movie confirms that, as it cuts directly to The End.
- Romantic False Lead: It is obvious from the get-go that Landry is going to choose exciting, unconventional Fanchon instead of dull, self-involved Madelon.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Fanchon is spunky and high-spirited and unafraid to get in a fight with the town bully when said bully picks on the slow-witted Didier. Madelon wears frilly dresses and is demure. Fanchon demands a kiss from Landry while Madelon will only let him chastely kiss her on the cheek. In one scene Madelon, wearing one of her fancy dresses, recoils at the prospect of walking through an ankle-deep stream and instead makes Landry carry her. Fanchon watches this, laughs, mocks Madelon's la-di-da manner, then hikes her skirt up and dashes across the stream.
- Unkempt Beauty: Fanchon lives in a rough shack in the woods with her grandma, and she wears ragged clothes with patches. But her long hair is teased out and styled and she looks stunningly beautiful.
