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For some reason or other, I have always missed seeing this film, that is until the night before last, when I saw it was on the French Arte channel.
Starting with the technical side, the monochrome photography is absolutely superb and the sound is excellent, considering its age and conditions (shot during the Nazi occupation of France and released in 1945). The massive crowd scenes in the Boulevard du Crime lost a little on a 28" TV, of course, but it quickly went from gros plan to the details of the plot, so nothing was lost in the way it was played out.
The plot is complex, revolving around the interplay of a number of characters and it involves love in all its forms, murder, petty crime, all in the surrealist background of a theatre specialising in mime. The mime itself is superb and brought tears to my eyes - it leaves Marcel Marceau standing, even in his heyday.
This is a beautiful film and I would class it easily in the top five films I've ever seen, such is the mixture of pathos, comedy, drama and visual beauty, with top actors of the day.
If you have the opportunity, please do see it. If you understand French, preferably in version originale; if not, subtitled, rather than dubbed.
A true work of cinematographic art in all its forms.
Starting with the technical side, the monochrome photography is absolutely superb and the sound is excellent, considering its age and conditions (shot during the Nazi occupation of France and released in 1945). The massive crowd scenes in the Boulevard du Crime lost a little on a 28" TV, of course, but it quickly went from gros plan to the details of the plot, so nothing was lost in the way it was played out.
The plot is complex, revolving around the interplay of a number of characters and it involves love in all its forms, murder, petty crime, all in the surrealist background of a theatre specialising in mime. The mime itself is superb and brought tears to my eyes - it leaves Marcel Marceau standing, even in his heyday.
This is a beautiful film and I would class it easily in the top five films I've ever seen, such is the mixture of pathos, comedy, drama and visual beauty, with top actors of the day.
If you have the opportunity, please do see it. If you understand French, preferably in version originale; if not, subtitled, rather than dubbed.
A true work of cinematographic art in all its forms.
(Arte is a french-german channel with two-channel sound, and can be received in all of Germany).
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