Had this movie been made in the Occupation days ,the ending would have certainly been changed .The heroine would have reneged on her love and spent the rest of her life praying ,praising the Lord and redeeming her soul.Louis Daquin -although a communist- had previously made two works which had a Vichy side :" Le Voyageur DE La Toussaint" (his best work though)and "Premier De Cordée".It was 1947 and an optimistic conclusion was necessary.The Office Catholique Du Cinema " ,although they did not ban the movie,advise their flock against an "immoral" story.
"Les Freres Bouquinquant" tells the story of three persons :a young girl (Madeleine Robinson ),who comes to Paris as a maid ,meets an aging alcoholic brute (Albert Prejean,cast against type ,for he was one of the womanizers of the thirties and forties) ,and his handsome nice brother (Roger Pigaut :it was the third time he had played opposite Robinson ,after "Douce" and "Sortilèges" ,and there was a good chemistry between the two actors).The rest is predictable but the performances are first class and the treatment quite interesting.
"I pushed my husband into the Seine" said a distraught woman to the Police .Two thirds of the movie are a long flashback ( the priest of the prison hears her confession ) with several returns to the present showing her brother-in-law (and lover ;she was pregnant by him,not by her husband)telling his side of the story to a friend.
The cinematography is bleak,depicting Paris as a very sad city (except for Julie's first stroll).The action often takes place on the banks of the Seine ,for they live on a boat on the river:the waters are so black it does not even reflect your face .On her way to jail,we see through Julie's eyes ,that is to say behind bars .Foreign people will notice that in those years ,women were often watched over by nuns in French prisons,and generally they were not really nice!The priest himself seems as intractable as the petulant Jehovah of Victorian Sunday schools!When Julie leaves the court ,this black man follows her :he is her guilty conscience.
But for Daquin ,who was about to make a "realistic socialist" movie ("Le Point Du Jour"),The only thing Julie could do was disobey the priest .
Beyond that point ,after "le Point Du Jour" ,Daquin was considered Stalinist and scared the producers who turned their back on him ,except for poor remakes "Le Mystere De La Chambre Jaune" and acceptable melodramas (" Maitre Apres Dieu").They say his "les Arrivistes" is a good adaptation of Balzac's novel "LA Rabouilleuse"
In need of restoration!
"Les Freres Bouquinquant" tells the story of three persons :a young girl (Madeleine Robinson ),who comes to Paris as a maid ,meets an aging alcoholic brute (Albert Prejean,cast against type ,for he was one of the womanizers of the thirties and forties) ,and his handsome nice brother (Roger Pigaut :it was the third time he had played opposite Robinson ,after "Douce" and "Sortilèges" ,and there was a good chemistry between the two actors).The rest is predictable but the performances are first class and the treatment quite interesting.
"I pushed my husband into the Seine" said a distraught woman to the Police .Two thirds of the movie are a long flashback ( the priest of the prison hears her confession ) with several returns to the present showing her brother-in-law (and lover ;she was pregnant by him,not by her husband)telling his side of the story to a friend.
The cinematography is bleak,depicting Paris as a very sad city (except for Julie's first stroll).The action often takes place on the banks of the Seine ,for they live on a boat on the river:the waters are so black it does not even reflect your face .On her way to jail,we see through Julie's eyes ,that is to say behind bars .Foreign people will notice that in those years ,women were often watched over by nuns in French prisons,and generally they were not really nice!The priest himself seems as intractable as the petulant Jehovah of Victorian Sunday schools!When Julie leaves the court ,this black man follows her :he is her guilty conscience.
But for Daquin ,who was about to make a "realistic socialist" movie ("Le Point Du Jour"),The only thing Julie could do was disobey the priest .
Beyond that point ,after "le Point Du Jour" ,Daquin was considered Stalinist and scared the producers who turned their back on him ,except for poor remakes "Le Mystere De La Chambre Jaune" and acceptable melodramas (" Maitre Apres Dieu").They say his "les Arrivistes" is a good adaptation of Balzac's novel "LA Rabouilleuse"
In need of restoration!
