I have seen this wonderful film yesterday, in well-known theater for movie lovers, in Paris Quartier Latin.
The story is based on Raymond Radiguet's novel of same title, and, as far as I remember the book, pretty close to it.
October 1917, in a bourgeois suburbia of Paris. François is a 16 year old "lycéen" ; in his high school, now partly an auxiliary hospital (the Great War is all around), he meets Marthe, whose mother is chief-nurse in the hospital. Marthe faints at her first contact with the wounded arriving en masse. François supports her and express his desire to see her "never get used to the horror". Seeing her the day after, understanding she is going to spend the day in Paris, François skips the classes to come along...
This film has very remarkable characteristics. The interpretation, first. Micheline Presle is impressive in the difficult part of a woman going from a submission to another, and conscious of this. She is even better than in "Falbalas". Gérard Philipe is quite alright, even when he has to cope with teenage attitudes (the actor is much older than the part, but very convincing nevertheless). Denise Grey and Jean Debucourt, old thespians, are a little bit declamatory but quite effective and their parts are complex enough to escape stereotypes. Palau is wonderful as Marthe's landlord, a mean old conformist. The rest of the cast is excellent, as it happened quite often in French movies of that time (let's think about the bunch of waiters in the scene at the restaurant).
Scenery and locations are perfect. The river and the platform, the scenes at the lake, all is fine and more than fine. Two details are wrong (one "transparence" and a short shot with a model river boat are the two technical flaws of the film, to me). The cinematography is very classic, even in some rather sophisticated movements of camera. The construction is classic too, the use of flash-back being far from revolutionary at this time. But all of this routine and well-crafted filming is very very effective, permitting the concentration on the story and the evolution of the characters. One word about the score, signed by René Cloërec : a very beautiful romantic theme.
One of the great qualities of the film is the depiction of progress and variations of love, by touches, elliptic and precise. Passion burst out quite early in the 110 minutes of the film, but the writers - well then ill then well again famed Bost and Aurenche - know how to show the evolution of the lovers : François enjoying his new power and the overwhelming, contradictory sensations it procures to him. And the writers give to Marthe the best part of their talent : shy fiancée, then reluctant, then betrayer and would-be passionate lover, then betrayed, then true wife, then falling again, then passionate lover, she seems to understand, as soon as the events are happening, who really is the man who takes her in perdition ("I have two children", she said, holding François on her pregnant woman's lap, when in the train). And she understands everything about the destiny of a woman of her time and of her condition, a future she fights anyway, albeit weakly.
Now that a restored copy is available, this movie is being watchable again. Do not miss it! Do not! It's a great film.
Didier_fort at hotmail.com
The story is based on Raymond Radiguet's novel of same title, and, as far as I remember the book, pretty close to it.
October 1917, in a bourgeois suburbia of Paris. François is a 16 year old "lycéen" ; in his high school, now partly an auxiliary hospital (the Great War is all around), he meets Marthe, whose mother is chief-nurse in the hospital. Marthe faints at her first contact with the wounded arriving en masse. François supports her and express his desire to see her "never get used to the horror". Seeing her the day after, understanding she is going to spend the day in Paris, François skips the classes to come along...
This film has very remarkable characteristics. The interpretation, first. Micheline Presle is impressive in the difficult part of a woman going from a submission to another, and conscious of this. She is even better than in "Falbalas". Gérard Philipe is quite alright, even when he has to cope with teenage attitudes (the actor is much older than the part, but very convincing nevertheless). Denise Grey and Jean Debucourt, old thespians, are a little bit declamatory but quite effective and their parts are complex enough to escape stereotypes. Palau is wonderful as Marthe's landlord, a mean old conformist. The rest of the cast is excellent, as it happened quite often in French movies of that time (let's think about the bunch of waiters in the scene at the restaurant).
Scenery and locations are perfect. The river and the platform, the scenes at the lake, all is fine and more than fine. Two details are wrong (one "transparence" and a short shot with a model river boat are the two technical flaws of the film, to me). The cinematography is very classic, even in some rather sophisticated movements of camera. The construction is classic too, the use of flash-back being far from revolutionary at this time. But all of this routine and well-crafted filming is very very effective, permitting the concentration on the story and the evolution of the characters. One word about the score, signed by René Cloërec : a very beautiful romantic theme.
One of the great qualities of the film is the depiction of progress and variations of love, by touches, elliptic and precise. Passion burst out quite early in the 110 minutes of the film, but the writers - well then ill then well again famed Bost and Aurenche - know how to show the evolution of the lovers : François enjoying his new power and the overwhelming, contradictory sensations it procures to him. And the writers give to Marthe the best part of their talent : shy fiancée, then reluctant, then betrayer and would-be passionate lover, then betrayed, then true wife, then falling again, then passionate lover, she seems to understand, as soon as the events are happening, who really is the man who takes her in perdition ("I have two children", she said, holding François on her pregnant woman's lap, when in the train). And she understands everything about the destiny of a woman of her time and of her condition, a future she fights anyway, albeit weakly.
Now that a restored copy is available, this movie is being watchable again. Do not miss it! Do not! It's a great film.
Didier_fort at hotmail.com