In France,people are more and more interested in the Pre-Nouvelle Vague stuff and we are currently witnessing a huge re-edition of movies ,principally from the fifties.
Henri Verneuil is par excellence the Saturday-night-at the_- movies director ,whom the "intellectuals " the children of the notorious N.V. love to despise .
It's certainly very unfair ;many of his movies have some kind of American know-how ("Le Clan Des Siciliens" perhaps the most American of the whole French cinema just because Verneuil,unlike many colleagues,never tried to sound "yankee" );"La Vache Et Le Prisonnier" is arguably Fernandel's last memorable movie.
"Des Gens Sans Importance " ,as is indicated by its name , deals with working-class people , a subject the Nouvelle Vague never broached (do not mention "The four hundred blows").
It's a long flashback:truck driver Jean remembers : two years ago ,he met a girl ,Clo,"who was not like the other ones and with whom he fell in love".Since the beginning, the situation is at a complete standstill:Jean has a wife (the good Yvette Etievant in an unrewarding part) who spends her time cooking,washing,sewing,mending ,darning,and taking care of their three children in a seedy apartment while her husband is away on the roads ;she appears as a sour-tempered shrew ,but with some excuses: the eldest ,Jacqueline (Dany Carrel) dreams of another life, she sits for cheesecake - "which excites the privates in their barracks" the father grumbles -and in her wildest dreams ,she thinks of stardom ;one of the boys seems to get good marks at school ("dad,I came 3rd this month") but the driver does not seem to care that much.Jean's lover,Clo,who could be his daughter, often harassed by her bosses, cannot find a steady job:she winds up as a cleaning lady in a brothel.The future looks bleak for the lovers :Clo gets pregnant by him and has to call on a backstreet abortionist.
It was a no -exit situation: the final sequences,when the truck is stuck on the road in the midst of dogs' barking and cows 'mooing ,is a transparent metaphor.
The melodramatic side has perhaps not worn well:but the depiction of truck drivers' life,their camaraderie , their difficulties to lead a family life ,all rings true;besides,the pairing of Gabin and sexy Françoise Arnoul is really a winner.
like this? try these.......
"Gas -Oil" Gilles Grangier,1955
"Un Témoin Dans La Ville" ,Edouard Molinaro, 1959
Henri Verneuil is par excellence the Saturday-night-at the_- movies director ,whom the "intellectuals " the children of the notorious N.V. love to despise .
It's certainly very unfair ;many of his movies have some kind of American know-how ("Le Clan Des Siciliens" perhaps the most American of the whole French cinema just because Verneuil,unlike many colleagues,never tried to sound "yankee" );"La Vache Et Le Prisonnier" is arguably Fernandel's last memorable movie.
"Des Gens Sans Importance " ,as is indicated by its name , deals with working-class people , a subject the Nouvelle Vague never broached (do not mention "The four hundred blows").
It's a long flashback:truck driver Jean remembers : two years ago ,he met a girl ,Clo,"who was not like the other ones and with whom he fell in love".Since the beginning, the situation is at a complete standstill:Jean has a wife (the good Yvette Etievant in an unrewarding part) who spends her time cooking,washing,sewing,mending ,darning,and taking care of their three children in a seedy apartment while her husband is away on the roads ;she appears as a sour-tempered shrew ,but with some excuses: the eldest ,Jacqueline (Dany Carrel) dreams of another life, she sits for cheesecake - "which excites the privates in their barracks" the father grumbles -and in her wildest dreams ,she thinks of stardom ;one of the boys seems to get good marks at school ("dad,I came 3rd this month") but the driver does not seem to care that much.Jean's lover,Clo,who could be his daughter, often harassed by her bosses, cannot find a steady job:she winds up as a cleaning lady in a brothel.The future looks bleak for the lovers :Clo gets pregnant by him and has to call on a backstreet abortionist.
It was a no -exit situation: the final sequences,when the truck is stuck on the road in the midst of dogs' barking and cows 'mooing ,is a transparent metaphor.
The melodramatic side has perhaps not worn well:but the depiction of truck drivers' life,their camaraderie , their difficulties to lead a family life ,all rings true;besides,the pairing of Gabin and sexy Françoise Arnoul is really a winner.
like this? try these.......
"Gas -Oil" Gilles Grangier,1955
"Un Témoin Dans La Ville" ,Edouard Molinaro, 1959