Director: Marcel Carné
Year: 1938
Run-time: 1 hr 31 min
- This is the first of two Carné films on the list from 1938. We haven't talked much about French poetic realism, the style pioneered by Pepe le Moko (also starring Jean Gabin), but this is where that style heavily overlaps with what would become film noir (Wikipedia claims this was one of the first films to be called as such). The tropes of noir are so heavily associated with post-war depression and malaise that it's pretty shocking to see these same tropes show up before the war - the French government agreed, and even banned this film for a time as not representative of the French spirit. It's an excellent film, though. From my perspective, both of these early Carné works show clear ties to the Marseilles trilogy - this one, because of the persistent theme of the sea as a place for escape and loss of identity.
- I am much more in love with the French acting style of the 30's than I am of America's in the same period, despite the excellence of Grant and Hepburn. We'll have more to say about Gabin later, but I'm very happy to see a different kind of performance by Michel Simon. In Boudu Saved from Drowning and L'atalante, Simon represented a kind of pure, neutral chaos. This is the film that twists his talents into a modern villain, and he's excellent in that you can't quite see that direction from the start of the film. I really hope this isn't the last we'll see of Simon.
Year: 1938
Run-time: 1 hr 31 min
- This is the first of two Carné films on the list from 1938. We haven't talked much about French poetic realism, the style pioneered by Pepe le Moko (also starring Jean Gabin), but this is where that style heavily overlaps with what would become film noir (Wikipedia claims this was one of the first films to be called as such). The tropes of noir are so heavily associated with post-war depression and malaise that it's pretty shocking to see these same tropes show up before the war - the French government agreed, and even banned this film for a time as not representative of the French spirit. It's an excellent film, though. From my perspective, both of these early Carné works show clear ties to the Marseilles trilogy - this one, because of the persistent theme of the sea as a place for escape and loss of identity.
- I am much more in love with the French acting style of the 30's than I am of America's in the same period, despite the excellence of Grant and Hepburn. We'll have more to say about Gabin later, but I'm very happy to see a different kind of performance by Michel Simon. In Boudu Saved from Drowning and L'atalante, Simon represented a kind of pure, neutral chaos. This is the film that twists his talents into a modern villain, and he's excellent in that you can't quite see that direction from the start of the film. I really hope this isn't the last we'll see of Simon.
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