"When the lights are dimmed in the morning I know it's rehearsal time, and when all the lights go out at night,it means you're on your way down!" Taking part in a poll for the best films of 1980,I took a look at lists of films from the year. Having seen his other two works from the decade, (1981's The Woman Next Door & 1983's Confidentially Yours-both also reviewed) I got set to discover how Francois Truffaut's started in the decade.
View on the film:
The second in a planned "Performance" trilogy of Day For Night (1973-also reviewed) and L'Agence Magic (which never got made due to his passing) co-writer/(with regular collaborator Suzanne Schiffman, who is joined by Jean-Claude Grumberg) directing auteur Francois Truffaut reunites with his regular cinematographer of this period Nestor Almendros, and takes a seat at the theatre with a continued expansion of his distinctive tracking shots.
Going behind the curtain,Truffaut stages mesmerising, ultra-stylised long tracking shots, which along with laying out the cosy surroundings by exploring each tight corner, also draws the cramped conditions that Marion is working under to keep her husband safely hidden.
Under the constant threat of being arrested for the stage being shut down, Truffaut gets to the front of the stage with fluid close-ups under the hot lights, burning to the disagreements shared by Granger and Marion off stage,being made visible on the curtain call.
The first of two times they worked together,Gerard Depardieu (who on the audio commendatory,revealed that the first thing he said to Truffaut:" Your film (Love on the Run (1979-also reviewed) was too bourgeoisie!" gives a excellent performance as Granger, whose arrogant swagger and wannabe ladies man attitude is turned by Depardieu into a passion to join the French Resistance.
Reuniting with Truffaut for the first time since Mississippi Mermaid (1969-also reviewed) Catherine Deneuve gives a splendid turn as Marion,thanks to Deneuve holding the mask of relaxed glamour Marion wears when on stage, with the growing anxiety behind it,from news of the continued erosion of the "Free Zone" (where she hopes her husband would be able to secretly enter in order to flee to Spain from) in France.
Paying tribute to the Fantasy genre of French cinema in the early 40's, the writers present the stage as embodying the spirit of free France,where the cast/ crew stand against the hatred growing in the country,with a passionate, loyal tolerance for each other and their differences, as they offer the crowd escapism.
Bringing his former scriptwriter onto the stage, Jean-Louis Richard gives a marvellous turn as Daxiat, (based on real anti-semitic arts reviewer of the 40's Alain Laubreaux, whose pseudonym was Michel Daxiat) who has the thin façade of a jolly bourgeoisie who is a lover of the arts, which snaps on his extremist support for the Occupation.
Seating the majority of the film in the theatre, the screenplay by Truffaut, Schiffman and Grumberg present on the stage a microcosm of the history of the Occupation, with the horrifying anti-semitism screaming across the front pages of newspapers, the radio,and boot-licker mobs wanting Daxiat's ear, stating their support for the Occupation,with a utterly chilling normality.