With this brilliant film Henri Decoin skirts the territory practically patented by Marcel Pagnol and moves it from Provence to the banks of the Rhone where he subjects his Pagnol-like village to microscopic scrutiny where Pagnol was content to view his merely through a normal lens. There's a lot of healthy cynicism on display and for 1947 Decoin was more than cavalier in his irreverent approach to sacred cows. The Romeo and Juliet factor runs through it and it is interesting to recall that only a couple of years later a slightly better writer than Jean Aurenche (Jacques Prevert) and a slightly less gifted director than Decoin (Andre Cayatte) would explore a similar plot/theme in Les Amants de Verone and having said this let me add that I bow to no one in my admiration of both Jean Aurenche and Claude Autant-Lara, respectively among the finest Writers and Directors in French cinema. Almost inevitably Michel Simon steals the movie and Gaby Morlay is not far behind as his slatternly live-in lover but Decoin hits so many targets - organised religion, local politics etc - that the performances are merely a bonus. Decoin didn't get much better than this and that's saying something.
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writers_reign7 March 2008
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dbdumonteil8 February 2019As I'm flipping through a "Central Catholique" book,I notice that "Les Amants du Pont Saint-Jean was deemed "not suitable for a Christian audience;to be avoided out of respect for religion" The film begins with a procession on the banks of the Rhone ;the first pictures show a peaceful river flow .But what follows was downright scandalous for a well-meaning 1947 audience.Decoin seems to find back Jean Renoir's stubborn rebellious mind ,that of "La Chienne" and "Boudu Sauvé des Eaux ".
Michel Simon -who was Renoir's star- portrays a semi-tramp who sleeps with a crude woman (Morlay),a lush with a racy past.He has a son (Marc Cassot) who wants to marry the mayor's daughter;the father is not prepared to accept if,for the boy comes from a shameless background.
The young lovers do not do what the audience expects;had they died ,like Romeo and Juliet ,the film would have had an acceptable (thus reactionary) "moral".But they realize that their escape ("to think that she left home without her rosary ,the auntie/nun sighs!") represents the best hours of their love;if they get married ,sooner or later ,they will become like their family without a sound.Decoin takes here romanticism to new limits and proves us that any Romeo and any Juliet do not have to die to make their true love live forever.
When the boy comes back,to be confronted to a "wedding" banquet,which is a farce (his father and his partner have decided to get married to become part of the respectable people and thus become the mayor's daughter's family -in- law ) where the guests are drinking or bellowing bawdy songs,he realizes that his love was right to renege on their love .She told him so:"if you marry me ,you correct something which is wrong,but there is nothing wrong!" In 1947,such words were daring! The ending is completely unexpected and proves that Romeo and Juliet can age gracefully. -
dbdumonteil17 February 2008As I'm flipping through a "Central Catholique" book,I notice that "Les Amants du Pont Saint-Jean was deemed "not suitable for a Christian audience;to be avoided out of respect for religion" The film begins with a procession on the banks of the Rhone ;the first pictures show a peaceful river flow .But what follows was downright scandalous for a well-meaning 1947 audience.Decoin seems to find back Jean Renoir's stubborn rebellious mind ,that of "La Chienne" and "Boudu Sauvé des Eaux ".
Michel Simon -who was Renoir's star- portrays a semi-tramp who sleeps with a crude woman (Morlay),a lush with a racy past.He has a son (Marc Cassot) who wants to marry the mayor's daughter;the father is not prepared to accept if,for the boy comes from a shameless background.
The young lovers do not do what the audience expects;had they died ,like Romeo and Juliet ,the film would have had an acceptable (thus reactionary) "moral".But they realize that their escape ("to think that she left home without her rosary ,the auntie/nun sighs!") represents the best hours of their love;if they get married ,sooner or later ,they will become like their family without a sound.Decoin takes here romanticism to new limits and proves us that any Romeo and any Juliet do not have to die to make their true love live forever.
When the boy comes back,to be confronted to a "wedding" banquet,which is a farce (his father and his partner have decided to get married to become part of the respectable people and thus become the mayor's daughter's family -in- law ) where the guests are drinking or bellowing bawdy songs,he realizes that his love was right to renege on their love .She told him so:"if you marry me ,you correct something which is wrong,but there is nothing wrong!" In 1947,such words were daring! The ending is completely unexpected and proves that Romeo and Juliet can age gracefully.
With its four (or maybe five) suicides,its spoofs on marriage and religion,"les Amants du Pont Saibt-Jean " is Decoin's finest hour! But it was his hour of darkness:it's up to you to decide: 1946:"La Fille du Diable " Isabelle commits suicide.
1947:"Non Coupable" Decoin's best ,unfairly overlooked: Dr Ancelin commits suicide .
This film:as I wrote,four suicides,including the two leads.
"les Amoureux Sont Seuls Au Monde" :the musician's wife commits suicide! In the short space of two years ,that's a lot of death! -
happytrigger-64-3905171 February 2019I really don't understand why this pure french vitriolic masterpiece directed by Henri Decoin is completely unknown, maybe I'm the only one to think it's a great movie. Michel Simon, Gaby Morlay and Paul Frankeur (and others) live in constant adversity in a small poor village next to the river Rhône. Add to these weird situations corpses floating and you'll get a constant sarcastic and surprising movie, as the future movies directed by Mocky. If Michel Simon is as always an anarchist oldtimer (close to Boudu), Gaby Morlay is outstanding as an aging wino trying to keep young by dancing in beautiful dresses (reminds me of the sketch in Ophüls's "le Plaisir"). And Paul Frankeur is the tough mayor-bartender teasing Gaby Morlay. And so many many popular and imaginative scenes written by great Jean Aurenche and René Wheeler. Definitely not bourgeois cinema.