Après l'amour (1947)

Maurice Tourneur, the director and father of his more famous son Jacques Tourneur, and Henri Duvernois, on which book the script of the movie was based, are two big but forgotten names in French cinema. They were both writers: Tourneur made a hundred films and Duvernois was a very known writer and good friend of Jean Cocteau, Sacha Guitry, Appollinaire etc... and as much movies were made of Duvernois' books as Tourneur wrote scripts for movies. Among this huge production, only a few titles stand. "Après l'amour", f.i., is an old fashioned love story which is centered around marriage and fidelity. Pierre Blanchar (François) and Simone Renant (Nicole) form a convincing high society couple and Gisèle Pascal (Germaine) is just good as a young student. We feel sympathy for this trio because they are not master of their passions, how much they would like to be. The end of the film is not disappointing for the viewers of that time but contemporary people would like to have something more of a surprise. There is a lot of pure love in this movie which was made by people who were still imprisoned by the obligations of marriage, without being unhappy. They simply had another idea of being happy: without pure sentiments life had no reason to be lived.