After watching Caprices and Gambling Hell (both 1942-both reviewed) I looked for a third French title from the year to make this a trio. Having found other works he's made to be special,I was interested to see others taking part in ICM's best films of '42 poll, list a Marcel Carne title from the year,which led to me becoming a envoy for the devil.
View on the film:
Travelling back to Medieval France,co-writer/(with Pierre Laroche) Jacques Prevert continues the collaboration with auteur director Marcel Carne & cinematographer Roger Hubert in taking a allegorical attack to the Nazi Occupation of France, here represented as the actual "Devil",who tries to impersonate/blend in with the residences (who can't shake off that the image he's presenting is false) and forcing the Resistance/ resisting lovers into writing away all that makes them independent,to join him in a forced relationship. Keeping references to the real occupying devil under the skin, the writers take the "Poetic Realism" of the era and sprinkle it into a spellbinding Fantasy, pulled by an atmosphere of forbidden love from Satan's "envoy's" Gilles and Dominique losing their horns to passionate flames of unexpected romance.
Keeping the heart of France beating even in the stone of Occupation, director Carne teams up with cinematographer Hubert again and unveils a startling dive into the surreal, sparkling in long tracking shots of Gilles and Dominique walking between guests frozen in time at the palace, (credit to the extras for staying so still!) getting weaved with glittering in-camera magic of dissolves and pause/start effects. Carving the incredibly moving final shot, Carne takes the fantastical elements of the tale,and curls it round his distinctive Poetic Realism ultra- stylisation, blossoming in refined close-ups on Gilles and Anne, shadowed by crawling panning shots following Satan breaking the chains of romance.
Featuring un-credited cameos from Alain Resnais and Simone Signoret, Alain Cuny gives a excellent performance as Gilles, who Cuny twirls from being devilish charming, to fairy tale, heroic heartbreak, shared with Marie Dea's superb, expressive Anne. Sent down by Jules Berry's delightfully cackling Devil, "Arletty" reunites with Carne,and presents a mesmerising turn as Dominique, ignited in Arletty expressing with her body language in dialogue-free set-pieces the sorrow of having to turn her back from her love,towards the devil, probably.
View on the film:
Travelling back to Medieval France,co-writer/(with Pierre Laroche) Jacques Prevert continues the collaboration with auteur director Marcel Carne & cinematographer Roger Hubert in taking a allegorical attack to the Nazi Occupation of France, here represented as the actual "Devil",who tries to impersonate/blend in with the residences (who can't shake off that the image he's presenting is false) and forcing the Resistance/ resisting lovers into writing away all that makes them independent,to join him in a forced relationship. Keeping references to the real occupying devil under the skin, the writers take the "Poetic Realism" of the era and sprinkle it into a spellbinding Fantasy, pulled by an atmosphere of forbidden love from Satan's "envoy's" Gilles and Dominique losing their horns to passionate flames of unexpected romance.
Keeping the heart of France beating even in the stone of Occupation, director Carne teams up with cinematographer Hubert again and unveils a startling dive into the surreal, sparkling in long tracking shots of Gilles and Dominique walking between guests frozen in time at the palace, (credit to the extras for staying so still!) getting weaved with glittering in-camera magic of dissolves and pause/start effects. Carving the incredibly moving final shot, Carne takes the fantastical elements of the tale,and curls it round his distinctive Poetic Realism ultra- stylisation, blossoming in refined close-ups on Gilles and Anne, shadowed by crawling panning shots following Satan breaking the chains of romance.
Featuring un-credited cameos from Alain Resnais and Simone Signoret, Alain Cuny gives a excellent performance as Gilles, who Cuny twirls from being devilish charming, to fairy tale, heroic heartbreak, shared with Marie Dea's superb, expressive Anne. Sent down by Jules Berry's delightfully cackling Devil, "Arletty" reunites with Carne,and presents a mesmerising turn as Dominique, ignited in Arletty expressing with her body language in dialogue-free set-pieces the sorrow of having to turn her back from her love,towards the devil, probably.