Anyone watching this on DVD who admires French Cinema and has a special regard for 30s/40s French cinema could be forgiven for hitting the 'Pause' button at the end of the Opening credits just to savour the roll-call of names there from writer Yves Mirande through a roster of such stalwart actors as Andre Luguet, Noel-Noel, Jean Tissier, Raymond Rouleau, Rene Lefevre, Bernard Blier and Michele Alfa. This was only one of five films the tragic actress Mireille Balin made in 1942 but for many the main attraction will be Arletty whose career may be said to epitomise irony in that roughly 90-95% of her roles were supporting rather than leading (for example, the first two - Hotel du Nord and Le Jour se leve - of the four films she made with Marcel Carne were, strictly speaking supporting, yet she managed to walk away with both even playing opposite Louis Jouvet and Jean Gabin respectively. In every decade since the 1930s French cinema has produced at least one World-Class actress, Arletty herself in the thirties, Simone Signoret in the forties, Jeanne Moreau in the fifties, Catherine Deneuve in the sixties, Isabelle Huppert in the seventies and so on but all of the others were Leading Ladies in every sense of the world whilst Arletty continued - as she does here - to achieve immortality largely in support. This is one of the portmanteau films in the tradition of Un Carnet de bal and - as the only other poster has noted - Julien Duvivier was the Master of this genre. Arletty appears only in the first of five segments, all of which deal with unhappy love affairs, recalled by the male half in an attempt to discourage a young man from suicide after being dumped. Although release was held up this was actually shot in 1942 during the Occupation at a time when Continental was grabbing the lion's share of the market and it's interesting as an example of the kind of fare that was on offer at the time. I'll certainly watch it again.
Add a Review
-
writers_reign11 October 2008
-
dbdumonteil28 September 2008A gathering of old friends ;the actors (Raymond Rouleau,René Lefèvre,etc) seem older than they were in 1942.Up comes the host's nephew who doesn't want to join the party and goes up to his bedroom.The servant sees a revolver on an armchair:he is about to commit suicide .He warns the uncle who takes the boy down to the dining-room :his girlfriend walked out on him some hours ago and he cannot overcome the pain.The guests then begin to tell him a tale of their private life ,when they too were about to take their own lives.
The film made of sketches was in France (and in America during the war years) Julien Duvivier's field.Nobody has equaled him since in this genre in France and nobody probably ever will.Robert Vernay's sketches are so so stuff ,occasionally funny ,but never really exciting.
Segment one: the guest is in love with a chanteuse ,but she is independent and marriage would be a prison to her.Only interesting because Arletty is in it and plays her own character :In real life ,Arletty never got married.
Segment two:like segment one is saved from mediocrity by Arletty,segment two is saved by René Lefèvre ,mainly in its first part when he comes home stinking out booze much to his wealthy father's great displeasure.
Segment three: a sculptor (Michele Alfa) hires a lawyer as a model (a gladiator).Not particularly stunning.
Segment four: two men (Raymond Rouleau and Jean Tissier) love the same woman (Mireille Balin).This segment 's trick lies in the fact that the first name Claude ,in French is masculine and feminine.
Segment five:A man passes for dead ,and as he lies on his "deathbed ",he learns his wife slept with his best friend ,and that she is rather stingy when it comes to buying a coffin (Bernard Blier plays the undertaker).Average.
The young man understands that life is worth living and that "joys of love" don't last and that there are plenty of unhappy love affairs.But when he returns home,the lights are on...What do you suppose that means?