Two years before "l'Atalante", Harry Lachman directed "la Belle Marinière" with a similar story, a young couple living in a barge after their wedding. There are great young actors, Pierre Blanchar, Madeleine Renaud (don't miss her sexy scene) and Jean Gabin. "La Belle Marinière" anticipates "l'Atalante" and the Gabin masterpieces, but he is not yet a nasty boy, except in a fight scene with Pierre Blanchar. The most interesting about this movie lost for 80 years are the locations scenes shot by the master Rudy Maté, so many scenes are astounding, like the wedding or the end. The director Larry Hachman was a France lover and he painted magnificent french landscapes, we can say he tried to do the same in this movie. There are four reels missing in that long lost movie, we hope they will emerge some day from a cinematheque. Thank you to the searcher who found that ghost movie.
2 Reviews
Barging onto the barge .
ulicknormanowen21 January 2021
In 1920 ,the first "barge movie" ,"l'hirondelle et la mésange" (André Antoine) was made but never theatrically released ,because the producers thought it was not commercial enough ;but the true reason might be that the ending was immoral.It was salvaged by Henri Colpi in 1982!
"La Belle Marinière" ,two years before Vigo's classic "l'Atalante ",as the precedent user points out , had also a risqué ending :is it the reason why half of the movie is (forever) lost?
But the three long segments which remain are splendid indeed,and had the film been thoroughly preserved, it could have compared favorably with the above-mentioned works.
The subject is as old as the hills: a love triangle on a barge , a sexy girl (Madeleine Renaud ,cast against type) joins the crew (Gabin,Pierre Blanchar , Rosine Déréan) of a barge and sows discord among men who were the best friends in the world after the owner marries her .But the treatment is excellent , and ,as Happytrigger wrote, the best scenes are to be found in the beginning and in the end :
-the wedding,when an intruder, a private from Pont-A -Mousson, invites himself and behaves like a crude glutton who overstays his welcome .
-the very last pictures , depicting the betrayed confidence ,are dazzling.
Two great names collaborated : cinematography is by Rudolph Maté (later , director of such film noir classics as "D.O.A.),and editing by Jean Delannoy ,who had been ignored and despised for a long time,but whose best works were restored to favor by Bertrand Tavernier and Jacques Lourcelles.
"La Belle Marinière" ,two years before Vigo's classic "l'Atalante ",as the precedent user points out , had also a risqué ending :is it the reason why half of the movie is (forever) lost?
But the three long segments which remain are splendid indeed,and had the film been thoroughly preserved, it could have compared favorably with the above-mentioned works.
The subject is as old as the hills: a love triangle on a barge , a sexy girl (Madeleine Renaud ,cast against type) joins the crew (Gabin,Pierre Blanchar , Rosine Déréan) of a barge and sows discord among men who were the best friends in the world after the owner marries her .But the treatment is excellent , and ,as Happytrigger wrote, the best scenes are to be found in the beginning and in the end :
-the wedding,when an intruder, a private from Pont-A -Mousson, invites himself and behaves like a crude glutton who overstays his welcome .
-the very last pictures , depicting the betrayed confidence ,are dazzling.
Two great names collaborated : cinematography is by Rudolph Maté (later , director of such film noir classics as "D.O.A.),and editing by Jean Delannoy ,who had been ignored and despised for a long time,but whose best works were restored to favor by Bertrand Tavernier and Jacques Lourcelles.
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