Post by morrisondylanfan on Oct 18, 2019 17:54:53 GMT
I thought it was pretty great and the print we saw was suprisingly good as well. The final scenes in Palestinian desert particularly left a lasting impression and elevated the film from good to great for me.
La Verite (1960) will probably be my next watch, did you see it ?
10. "The Nazi girl."
Banned from making films from 1943-1947 (when Quai des Orfèvres was made) Jean Ferry and co-writer/director Henri-Georges Clouzot's loose adaptation of Abbé Prévost's novel "L'Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut" burns with an unrelenting fury. Transferring the XVIIIth century set book to the '40s,the writers attack every area of Occupied/Post-War France with a Film Noir heart,as Lescaut obsession with the consumer culture is shown to be a soulless entity which pulls Lescaut back into the darkness of the war time era. Attacking those who had made him an outcast,Clouzot's shows the former "The Resistance" fighters to be cold hearted devils,who along with accepting everything at face value,are also determined to block any sunlight from entering Dégrieux & Lescaut relationship.
Hitting back at those who had tried to make him fall,(talk about getting on the wrong side of the guy!) director Henri-Georges Clouzot and cinematographer Armand Thirard seal Dégrieux & Lescaut in a merciless Film Noir world,as Clouzot subtly uses a charcoal depth of field to show that even gold can not glitter in this world,with Clouzot giving the title a chilling atmosphere of impending doom,by scattering tightly coiled tracking shots to show the dark world closing in on Dégrieux and Lescaut.
Empathizing the bleak mood built in the indoor scenes,Clouzot gives the outdoor scenes a very contrasting appearance,thanks to Clouzot painting the outdoors as a stark,burning white desert wasteland,which along with allowing Clouzot to take a little dip into Adventure-movie mode(!),also gives Clouzot the chance to take a mature allegorical route in showing how wrong his critics were,as Dégrieux & Lescaut find their one moment of happiness in the promise land.
Offering his heart and all the jewels that she desires, Michel Auclair gives an extraordinary,gritty performance as Robert Dégrieux, Initially appearing calm and collective, Auclair pulls everyone of Dégrieux's nerves out to reveal his vulnerability towards Lescaut,as Auclair shows Dégrieux to be a Film Noir loner, who's growing obsession with Lescaut leads him to an ocean of death. Appearing like a fragile doll,the beautiful Cécile Aubry sets the film alight as burning hot femme fatale Manon Lescaut. Striking a fine balance,Aubry gives Lescaut a sweet, joyful nature which gets under Dégrieux skin,which is countered with Lescaut's hard-edge fight for all that she desires,as Lescaut reveals to Dégrieux the real resistance.
On La Verite (1960),I'll share you a story I told hitchcockthelegend . Before the recent Criterion edition came out,I found it on Amazon France with English Subs listed for the disc. I used some of my birthday to import the DVD,which sure did have Eng Subs, only problem was it was two words in English for every three sentences spoken!