Seeing a poll start on ICM for the best films from 1948,I decided to start viewing a pile of French films of '48 that I had gathered earlier in the year. Finding the 1943 duo Carnival of Sinners and Valley of Hell to be magnificent works,I was sad to read that 1948 was the last year auteur Maurice Tourneur made a movie, (a car accident would lead to him not making a film for the last 13 years of his life)which led to me paying my respects to Tourneur.
View on the film:
Two angels before they would turn poisonous in the classic Les Diaboliques and team up in Jacques Feyder's Back Streets of Paris,and Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows ( neither of which I've yet seen) Paul Meurisse and beautiful Simone Signoret give excellent performances as Jean and Anne-Marie / Marianne. Assigned with the task of stealing the necklace, Meurisse has Jean ooze "Caper" charisma,with Jean smoothly blending into the glittering champagne parties and performing the robberies with ease. Interrupted in this robbery by a glimpse of Marianne, Meurisse shreds the charm for a Film Noir loner,with Jean being unable to let go of the ghostly memory of his romance with Marianne. Stepping away from the music hall to marry an aristocrat , Simone Signoret brings to light exquisitely the haunted love she shares with Jean,as they walk down old streets,and Signoret gives Marianne a weight to her memories of days long gone.
Reuniting with Tourneur,the screenplay by Jean-Paul Le Chanois gives the opening a playfulness,as the elite Marquis Antoine de Fontaines pulls Marianne into his approved circle of entourage,while Jean hangs out with fellow thieves who have their eyes on the elite dropping their guard. Continuing to allegorically address issues, Chanois sets Jean and Marianne's re-awakened romance against the bombed streets of post-WWII,where the couple find doomed love and fading optimism along the crime-ridden shadowy streets.
Ending his career on an outstanding high, director Maurice Tourneur brings Jean and Marianne memories to the present with ultra-stylised superimposes double-exposures gliding across the street that the couple watch walk by. Giving their final brief encounter an icy Film Noir atmosphere, Tourneur and cinematographer Claude Renoir hold Marianne's necklace with shimmering tracking shots bringing the couple close together and reflecting the dilemma of two angels.
View on the film:
Two angels before they would turn poisonous in the classic Les Diaboliques and team up in Jacques Feyder's Back Streets of Paris,and Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows ( neither of which I've yet seen) Paul Meurisse and beautiful Simone Signoret give excellent performances as Jean and Anne-Marie / Marianne. Assigned with the task of stealing the necklace, Meurisse has Jean ooze "Caper" charisma,with Jean smoothly blending into the glittering champagne parties and performing the robberies with ease. Interrupted in this robbery by a glimpse of Marianne, Meurisse shreds the charm for a Film Noir loner,with Jean being unable to let go of the ghostly memory of his romance with Marianne. Stepping away from the music hall to marry an aristocrat , Simone Signoret brings to light exquisitely the haunted love she shares with Jean,as they walk down old streets,and Signoret gives Marianne a weight to her memories of days long gone.
Reuniting with Tourneur,the screenplay by Jean-Paul Le Chanois gives the opening a playfulness,as the elite Marquis Antoine de Fontaines pulls Marianne into his approved circle of entourage,while Jean hangs out with fellow thieves who have their eyes on the elite dropping their guard. Continuing to allegorically address issues, Chanois sets Jean and Marianne's re-awakened romance against the bombed streets of post-WWII,where the couple find doomed love and fading optimism along the crime-ridden shadowy streets.
Ending his career on an outstanding high, director Maurice Tourneur brings Jean and Marianne memories to the present with ultra-stylised superimposes double-exposures gliding across the street that the couple watch walk by. Giving their final brief encounter an icy Film Noir atmosphere, Tourneur and cinematographer Claude Renoir hold Marianne's necklace with shimmering tracking shots bringing the couple close together and reflecting the dilemma of two angels.