Aslant
Jean Marais meets the Thompson Twins from TINTIN?
I promised you more Dutch tilts, and Christian-Jaque’s VOYAGE SANS ESPOIR has them. Also: huge fog-shrouded sets with miniatures in the distance (tiny light-house with working beam!); rogue’s gallery of shifty sailors; doomed love; cryptic coppers; waterfront dives; desperate fugitives; shimmering light and crushed shadows.
At The Forgotten. Now GO!
March 6, 2014 at 2:28 pm
I went!
March 6, 2014 at 4:23 pm
I ran an extract from this film at the beginning of my French Film Noir class last year having recently obtained it from a dealer. Yes, I was knocked out since it differered from the Jacque of NANA and THE FOXIEST GIRL IN PARIS. However, he also did some interesting French noirs during the period of the Occupation but his films became less distinctive following Liberation. Was his brief flourish equivalent to the restraint of the Hollywood studio system resulting in covert creativity? Many ambivalent elements appear in films of this era.
March 6, 2014 at 5:43 pm
I think he was an enthusiastic participant in the pre-war gloom that darkened during the occupation, and when the war was over he just became a professional entertainer. But some of his colourful Martine Carole travesties are very enjoyable.