French Cinema—A Critical Filmography, Volume 1: 1929–1939

342 Pages·2015·1.815 MB·English

by  Colin Crisp

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F
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OLIN CRISP
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A CRITICAL FILMOGRAPHY
1, 1929-1939
volume
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
© 2015 by Colin Crisp
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Crisp, C. G.
French cinema : a critical filmography / Colin Crisp.
volume cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: Volume 1. 1929–1939.
ISBN 978-0-253-01696-6 (vol 1 pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-01703-1 (vol 1 ebook)
— ISBN 978-0-253-01695-9 (vol 2 pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-01702-4 (vol 2 ebook)
— ISBN 978-0-253-01795-6 (vol 3 pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-01796-3 (vol 3 ebook)
1. Motion pictures—France—Catalogs. I. Title.
PN1993.5.F7C783 2015
016.79143’750944—dc23
2015008318
1 2 3 4 5 20 19 18 17 16 15
Talkies and sonorised films are something entirely new. They’re interesting
inventions but I can’t see them remaining fashionable very long.
—Louis Lumière
Sound cinema, as it is currently practised, neglects 15 years of progress
towards cinematic independence. . . . It is re-living, with juvenile
inanity, all those errors that the silent cinema overcame.
—Jean Epstein, Cinéa-Ciné, November 1930
Let’s not pretend like certain moralists that the cinema depraves us. It
doesn’t deprave us any more than life itself, founded as it is on profit,
greed, the oppression of the weak, selfishness and injustice.
—Georges Altman, Ça, c’est du cinema, 1931
It’s almost true to say that a blind man faced with a genuine theatrical work or
a deaf man faced with a genuine cinematic work, though they may both lose
something of the work presented to them, should not lose the essence of it.
—René Clair, Le Temps, 18 July 1932
Let’s identify some principles that will serve as
the basis of our theory of sound film:
The silent film was the art of “printing”—of recording
a
and disseminating—pantomime.
Just as printing had a great influence on literature, the silent film
a
[through people like] Chaplin, Gance, Griffith and René Clair,
served to re-invent pantomime.
Sound film is the art of “printing”—of recording
a
and disseminating—theatrical works.
Sound film . . . must [therefore] re-invent the theatre.
a
—Marcel Pagnol, Les Cahiers du film, 15 December 1933
Here we have a machine capable of devouring the known universe,
and all we’re allowed to feed it is scraps and leftovers.
—Jacques Feyder, 1946, somewhat condensed by Chavance
Carné? Just one of Prévert’s quainter inventions.
—Henri Jeanson
Although the avant-garde in its most extreme and typical form has
disappeared, it doesn’t follow that the spirit of research and adventure
is dead. If those who represent it no longer make “marginal” films
it’s because for the most part the cinema industry has absorbed
them, but has not by any means completely tamed them.
—Jacques B. Brunius, En marge du cinéma français, 1954
It is impossible for a government that aspires to create a new social order
to allow a means of propaganda as powerful as the cinema to remain in
the hands of groups who may well have interests opposed to its own.
—Paul Faure, confidant of Léon Blum, April 1936
Charlotte Lysès (Guitry’s wife, at the time): “I know of only two geniuses—
Sacha and Hitler.”
St. Exupéry (Later when she has left): “The coming war will be far worse than
previous wars, because it will be a civil war that dare not speak its name.”
—Carlo Rim, Mémoires d’une vieille vague, regarding April 1938
Those [Jews] that settled in Paris were essentially the worst sort
of scum, the lowest grade of con-men, money-grubbing parasites
cold-shouldered even by their fellow Jews of any standing.
—Lucien Rebatet, Les Tribus du cinéma et du théâtre, 1941
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The French Cinema in the 1930s 1
PART I. The Introduction of Sound
1930
1. Prix de beauté (released 25 April) 17
2. Sous les toits de Paris (2 May) 19
3. L’Âge d’or (2 October) 22
4. Le Chemin du paradis (10 October) 25
5. Le Roi des resquilleurs (14 November) 28
6. La Petite Lise (4 December) 30
1931
7. L’Opéra de quat’sous (19 February) 33
8. David Golder (6 March) 37
9. Le Million (3 April) 40
10. Marius (7 October) 42
11. La Chienne (20 November) 45
12. À nous la liberté (18 December) 48
1932
13. Le Sang d’un poète (20 January) 52
14. Les 5 Gentlemen maudits (10 February) 54
15. Croix de bois (17 March) 57
16. L’Atlantide (8 June) 60
17. Les Gaietés de l’escadron (16 September) 63
18. Vampyr (23 September) 65
19. Poil de carotte (4 November) 68
20. Boudu sauvé des eaux (11 November) 71
21. L’Affaire est dans le sac (25 November) 73
PART II. The Great Depression
1933
22. Quatorze juillet (13 January) 79
23. L’Homme à l’Hispano (24 March) 81
24. Théodore et Cie (7 April) 84
25. Zéro de conduite (7 April) 86
26. La Maternelle (1 September) 90
27. Cette vieille canaille (3 November) 93
1934
28. La Rue sans nom (26 January) 95
29. La Croisière jaune (18 March) 98
30. Ces messieurs de la Santé (23 March) 101
31. Le Grand Jeu (27 April) 104
32. L’Atalante (14 September) 106
33. Si j’étais le patron (1 October) 109
34. Angèle (26 October) 111
35. L’Hôtel du Libre Échange (9 November) 113
1935
36. Pension Mimosas (18 January) 116
37. Le Bonheur (8 February) 118
38. Toni (22 February) 121
39. Justin de Marseille (5 April) 124
40. Quelle drôle de gosse (17 May) 127
41. Crime et châtiment (17 May) 129
42. La Bandera (20 September) 131
43. Princesse Tam-Tam (18 October) 134
44. L’Équipage (25 October) 137
45. La Kermesse héroïque (1 December) 139
PART III. The Rise of Poetic Realism
1936
46. Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (24 January) 145
47. Razumov or Sous les yeux d’Occident (20 March) 148
48. La Terre qui meurt (24 April) 151
49. La Vie est à nous (12 November 1969) 153
50. L’Appel du silence (1 May 1936) 156
51. La Belle Équipe (15 September) 159
viii Contents
52. Jenny (16 September) 162
53. Le Roman d’un tricheur (18 September) 164
54. César (13 November) 167
55. Une partie de campagne (8 May 1946) 169
1937
56. Pépé le Moko (28 January) 172
57. Messieurs les Ronds-de-Cuir (4 February) 175
58. L’Homme de nulle part (19 February) 177
59. Marthe Richard au service de la France (16 April) 180
60. La Grande Illusion (4 June) 183
61. Sarati le terrible (29 July) 187
62. Un carnet de bal (9 September) 189
63. Gribouille (10 September) 192
64. Gueule d’amour (16 September) 195
65. La Dame de Malacca (9 October) 198
66. Drôle de drame (20 October) 200
67. Regain (28 October) 203
68. Désiré (3 December) 205
69. Abus de confiance (3 December) 208
70. Naples au baiser de feu (17 December) 210
71. L’Alibi (22 December) 213
1938
72. Mollenard (26 January) 216
73. La Marseillaise (9 February) 218
74. Prison sans barreaux (17 February) and Prisons de femmes
(13 October) 221
75. La Tragédie impériale (30 March) 224
76. Les Disparus de Saint-Agil (13 April) 226
77. L’Étrange Monsieur Victor (4 May) 229
78. Quai des brumes (18 May) 232
79. La Femme du boulanger (7 September) 235
80. Tricoche et Cacolet (7 September) 237
81. La Maison du Maltais (21 September) 240
82. Entrée des artistes (5 October) 243
83. Monsieur Coccinelle (22 October) 245
84. Carrefour (26 October) 248
85. Le Drame de Shanghaï (26 October) 250
86. La Route enchantée (30 November) 253
Contents ix