416 - Manon, France, 1949. Dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot.
Welcome back to France. Have you missed it? I have.
French films are so beautiful and wonderful and good. How could we possibly stay away from them for very long?
Robert Desgrieux is a soldier for the French Resistance. The War is over, and he is tasked with helping to restore order to France.
Manon Lescaut is a woman accused of giving aid to the Nazis. We do not know if she did or not, but we do know that she does not wish to lose her hair.
A mob of French women has convened to shave her head. To identify her as a traitor. To punish her with humiliation.
Soldier Desgrieux steps in to rescue her locks and to give her a more proper due process. He arrests her.
Manon has a way of dealing with men in situations such as these. She flirts with him. Makes him promises. Seeks to seduce him.
Desgrieux will not fall for that. He has no time for shenanigans, so he unequivocally resists her. Until his Commanding Officer appears and Robert absentmindedly helps her hide in a confessional.
Under the icons.
Under the watchful gaze of the Saints.
He lies to his C.O. Tells him she escaped. Keeps her hidden until his C.O. leaves. Then she emerges from the confessional and he kisses her.
What?
Something has come over him.
Now he is in a dilemma. If he is caught, he will be court-martialed. Time to flee together to Paris!
They take shelter with her brother Leon. No, he is not in a chocolate war. He is a black marketeer. And Robert finds himself drawn into the underworld in order to make money to keep up with Manon's spending habits. Girls just want to have fun. She says so. She likes to live well. To dress well. To eat well. To be pampered. And she demands it of him. He loves her so much he gives in. He will do anything for her.
But whatever he makes, it is never enough. So she secretly begins a life of high-end prostitution to bring home more money. When Robert finds out about it, he is jealous and angry, but he does not leave her. He doubles down. To keep her. To win her. To prove he loves her most.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote about the film at the time it came out. "As a demonstration of human nature, we're afraid this film . . . fails to convey why a man would throw himself at the feet of an obviously no-good dame."
Apparently Bosley Crowther had never met a human being before. He believed people behave rationally. That they know what is good for them. And that they make wise choices. Nice dream, Bosley. Between Clouzot's movie and Crowther's criticism, Clouzot has the better handle on how real people really behave. Perhaps Crowther never experienced a human impulse. Perhaps he lived life outside of human nature. Or perhaps he was just deluding himself.
There is more going on here than the love story. Clouzot is commenting on French expectations after the War. On politics, society, and culture. Perhaps not everything is turning out the way people thought it would.
Robert and Manon will have to flee together again.
And this time they become stowaways aboard a ship on which Jews are escaping to Israel. The newly formed Israel. Israel became a country again in 1948. Manon came out in 1949.
This event is revealed early on in the movie, for the story begins aboard the ship. Robert and Manon are together. The Captain finds them. He takes them to his stateroom. They tell him their story.
Then we go into flashbacks.
After that, they will attempt, as Gentiles, to make it to the Promised Land. To Eden Garden.
They make it to the wilderness. And they are happy for a time.
She begs him to stay.
This side of Paradise.
But we watch as he insists that they traipse across the open desert, looking more as if being led by Lawrence of Arabia than Moses, on their way through Palestine, in search of the New Jerusalem.
Maybe they will make it.
Or maybe he will discover the only way that he can finally have her all to himself.
* * * * *
Michel Auclair plays Robert Desgrieux. We saw him in Jean Cocteau's great first film, La Belle et la Bete, as Ludovic.
Now we go back earlier in his career, when he was 27, for Manon.
When you watch Manon you may expect to see the great Simone Signoret starring with Reggiani, in the role of Manon. After all, she starred alongside him in La Ronde, in Army of Shadows, and in Jacques Becker's Casque d'Or (1952). They had also both appeared early in their careers in Le Voyageur de la Toussaint (1943). And, she also starred in our director Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic thriller Diabolique (1955).
But no, apparently Clouzot has not yet discovered her.
Today's female star is Cecile Aubry.
Who?
Cecile Aubry is credited with but nine roles in feature films. In one as "Actress." In another as "Uncredited." And in another as "The Foreigner" in a compilation film. This is her second film, her first as a leading lady, and perhaps Clouzot was setting her up to be a star. She is twenty years old and has something going on.
Aubry did in fact gain the attention of Hollywood, and after the success of this film she signed a contract with 20th Century Fox. She starred in Henry Hathaway's The Black Rose (1950), with Orson Welles and Tyrone Power, but it was she herself who decided to retire from acting in order to marry a Moroccan prince and become a writer. She went on to write children's literature and song lyrics.
Here are some reminders of films we have seen before.
SERGE REGGIANI
So far we have seen Serge Reggiani in four films:
1. La Ronde (1950).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/091-la-ronde-1950-france-dir-max-ophuls.html
2. Le Doulos (1963).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/086-le-doulos-hat-1963-france-dir-jean.html
3. The Leopard (1963).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/06/163-leopard-1963-italy-dir-luchino.html
4. Army of Shadows (1969).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/089-army-of-shadows-1969-france-dir.html
JEAN COCTEAU
Meanwhile, we have seen two films written and directed by Jean Cocteau and one written by him.
1. La Belle et la Bete (Beauty and the Beast) (1946).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/003-la-belle-et-la-bete-beauty-and.html
2. Orpheus (1950).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/04/095-orpheus-1950-france-dir-jean-cocteau.html
3. Les Enfants Terribles (1950)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/03/084-les-enfants-terribles-terrible.html
HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT
Finally, we have seen two of Clouzot's films, early on in our process. They were the fourth and fifth films we watched together. How lovely to come back to him at 416. And earlier in his career.
1. The Wages of Fear (1953).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/004-wages-of-fear-1953-france-dir-henri.html
2. Diabolique (1955).
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/01/005-diabolique-1955-france-dir-henri.html
No comments:
Post a Comment