User Reviews

Grémillon belongs to the same generation of French film-makers as Duvivier or Renoir, all born in the late 1890s. One could add Becker, Carné and Clouzot, born in the late 1900s, to the list. Nowadays, Grémillon's legacy is somewhat overshadowed by that of his colleagues, even though it's revered by some movie-buffs like the late French director and ultimate cinéphile Bertrand Tavernier.

Grémillon's trademark style involves setting a melodrama in a very realistic background, depicting everyday's life in rather modest, and often coastal surroundings. There are a lot of exterior shots of natural and urban landscapes, in an almost documentary fashion, a focus on the material hardships of his heroes, whether in their professional or private lives. At their best, his works foretell the neorealist Italian movies of the 1940-50s.

"L'Etrange Monsieur Victor" is a melodrama with criminal and social undertones, set in Toulon, a military harbor city in the French Provence, A respectable-looking bourgeois, Victor Agardanne (Raimu) is in fact the head of a gang of jewel robbers. He murders one of his accomplices and lets an innocent, hard-working cobbler (Blanchar) get condemned and sent to jail in his place. The drama picks up once the wrongfully convicted cobbler escapes from jail and heads back home, with Mr. Victor torn between remorse and his continued need to hide his crimes from both justice and his virtuous wife (Renaud).

The story is rather implausible overall, a sort of "Crime and Punishment" where Raskolnikov would be innocent and Judge. Porfiry would be the actual murderer - interestingly, Blanchar had played. Raskolnikov three years before in a movie by Pierre Chenal.

The whole melodrama part, in particular, is very dated, with dialogues which do not particularly inspire, and a depiction of human relationships which is very theatrical. Neither does the "crime story" fully convince: the plot is quite predictable, and Victor's would-be moral dilemma is painted in too broad strokes to be believable, the man oscillating between Mediterranean geniality and hard-core ruthlessness.

There remains a cast which deliver excellent and sometimes highly enjoyable performances. Raimu is a delight to watch, and Renaud is very moving. The two however, make for a very ill--assorted couple, beyond the needs of the script: it feels sometimes that they are playing in two different movies. Blanchar is the weak link of the cast, with a grating fake Provençal accent and a stilted and exaggerated acting style straight out of the silent films area. Viviane Romance has a small part as his wife of loose morals, a role she will reprise in several other pictures.

To be watched for Raimu and the depiction of Toulon in the late 1930s, Grémillon-style. For a movie featuring the framing of an innocent man over a background of social strife, check Duvivier's masterpiece "Panique" (1946), which is hugely superior.

Anyone who loves French cinema is likely to salivate just reading the Opening Credits of this entry. Despite propaganda to the contrary films begin with SCREENPLAYS - show me the 'auteur' who can shoot a ream of Blank paper and I'll show you someone who doesn't exist - and here we have not only Charles Spaak, one of the four (together with Jean Aurenche, Henri Jeanson and Jacques Prevert) Outstanding writers of the early Sound-to-post-War French cinema but also Albert Valentin whose work on Boudu Saved From Drowning was uncredited but went on to write 'La ciel est a vous' (also with Spaak), 'La vie de plaisir' and 'Le Mouton a cinq pattes' and directed three of the finest films in French cinema, 'L'Entraineuse', 'Marie-Martine' and 'La Vie de plaisir'. Behind the camera was Jean Gremillon, often consigned to footnote status in the reference books but a very fine director indeed who had already released 'Dainah Le Metisse' and 'Guele d'amour' and would go on to shoot 'Remorques', 'Lumiere d'ete' and 'Le Ciel est a vous' among others. Towering above the cast was Raimu; outside France it was Jean Gabin who received all the attention and this was not undeserved as he was an exceptional actor but WITHIN France Raimu was the 'man'. An accomplished stage actor he had already made a handful of silent films when he replicated his stage performance in Marius, the first episode of the great Marcel Pagnol trilogy and from then on his career as a star of the screen was assured. Closely associated with Pagnol he worked also with many of the top French directors running the gamut from tragedy to comedy. Playing his wife here was Madeleine Renaud, also an accomplished stage actress who would become Gremillon's favorite actress and appear in three more of his finest films, Remorques, Lumiere d'ete and Le Ciel est a vous.

If the opening credits activated the taste-buds the film itself delivers a banquet with Raimu as the essentially mild businessman who allows himself to become tainted by organized crime but attempts to extricate himself when his much younger wife (Renaud) presents him with a son. Inadvertently he kills the mobster who is leaning on him but a totally innocent man, Bastien (Pierre Blancher) is found guilty and draws ten years in the slammer. The film then becomes an early psychological study of a good man dealing with guilt and growing apart from family and friends. In a wonderful twist Blancher escapes after serving just over half of his sentence and Raimu takes him in thus forming an unwitting menage a trois (Blancher's own wife, Viviane Romance, had quickly divorced him following his incarceration, leaving him free to fall for Renaud). In 1938 this was a very sophisticated screenplay which is acted to the hilt and remains one of the most satisfying accomplishments of thirties French cinema. Once again my thanks to the Norwegian guy without whom ...

POSSIBLE SPOILERS POSSIBLE SPOILERS Raimu was one of the best French actors of all time.He shone in the Pagnol trilogy("Cesar","Fanny" and "Marius")he was absolutely unique,a real "monstre sacré".Victor gave him the opportunity to play,masterfully, a part of a criminal.

Monsieur Victor is a storekeeper,married to a lovely woman (Madeleine Renaud),who's younger than him and who's just given him a child.But he is involved with a band of thieves,and as he wants to retire to become an honest man-because of his new-born baby boy-one of the villains threatens to reveal his secret business .Monsieur Victor kills him,almost by accident;first,he does not realize what he's done,because he's a good man,he loves children and always lends a helping hand.Monsieur Victor is close to Fritz Lang's characters.An innocent,Bastien (Pierre Blanchar) is accused and sentenced to ten years of chain gang.

Monsieur Victor is eaten with remorse,his nature changes,he becomes nervous and quick-tempered,nobody (including his wife)understands him anymore.

Coup de theatre:Bastien escapes,he wants to see again his son; his wife (Viviane Romance)had divorced in order to marry a buck.Monsieur Victor hides him in his house.Then begins a stifling "huis clos"in the first floor of the house :the three persons ,the innocent-who ignores Victor's crime- the guilty one,and the wife.It's a dialogue of deafs,Monsieur Victor knowing that a gesture,a word or a look can ruin his whole life.But because he's a good man,he wants to help him and he treats him almost like a son.Bastien will also be the couple's enlighter.It's really a cul de sac,and Jean Gremillon conjures an excellent psychological suspense.

You've got to see Raimu,his extraordinary -but voluntarily subdued- emotional power-he was also a great stage actor as was Madeleine Renaud-,his fabulous presence,his big-hearted -even after what he's done- figure.He was irreplaceable.

Well, well. This is a curious situation. At the time of writing there have been three reviews and all three reviewers have understood this film quite differently from myself. Almost diametrically.

I think they have all been misled by the general reputation of Raimu and it is true this makes it somewhat difficult for him as an actor to portray a thoroughly unpleasant person but there is no doubt in my mind that that is what is intended here and that Raimu does actually a very good job of portraying it (the man was a wonderful actor) if you can somehow put out of your mind the other roles Raimu played.

All the "goodness" of Victor is fake. There are many scenes in the film that give the clues to this, when the mask drops and one sees the cynicism with which he adopts his familiar "kindly" persona (which is of course also the familiar Raimu persona).. There is nothing "inadvertent" about the killing, nor one suspects about the framing of the cordonnier. There is no attempt to prevent someone going to jail for a crime he has committed nor very much sign that he fells guilty about it. He is quite happy just to quietly pay money to the wife and child and seven relatively untroubled years slip by. What troubles him is not guilt but fear when Bastien has escaped from prison and all is attempts from that moment on are to prevent himself being caught, never for one single moment to atone for what he has done and what he has allowed to happen to another human being. His mistake comes because he wants to ruthlessly threaten another potential blackmailer just as he had done with the man he murdered. When the man turns on him and informs, he would clearly be quite happy to murder him just as he is quite happy to see Bastien being taken off to jail once more. Victor is a monster, but a "strange" monster because of the way he tries to keep his real and assumed personality totally separate and the success with which most of the time he is able to do that. Raimu creates here one of the most deeply unpleasant screen villains, not on a par perhaps with Mitchum's performance in Night of the Hunter or Lancaster's in Sweet Smell of Success but in some ways both more difficult and more fascinating because of the enormous difference between the real man and his false alter ego and the rare moments when the former is allowed to appear. Most people are taken n b him most of time in the film itself - that he is how he can get away with murder - but it is quite disturbing to see that many viewers seem to be taken in by him in much the same way and a curious tribute to the power of Raimu's acting.