Thursday, March 17, 2017
076 - Visitors of the Night (Les Visiteurs du Soir), 1942, France. Dir. Marcel Carne.
The Middle Ages.
Castles. Drawbridges. Moats. Dungeons.
Knights. Ladies. Chivalry. Horses. Hunts. Duels. Jousts.
Lances. Shields. Chain mail. Suits of armor.
The broadsword. The long sword. The halberd. The pike. The poleaxe.
Carolingian art. Romanesque architecture. Gothic cathedrals.
Vassalage. Feudalism. Serfs. Peerage.
The Crusades. The Knights Templar. The Knights of the Round Table. The Black Death.
Minstrels. Jesters. Troubadours. Lutes. Lyres. Dulcimers.
It is 1485 in France. Charles VIII reigns. The Affable.
How nice that Marcel Carné wants to make a film about this classic, romantic time.
Let us step to the mead hall and begin the feast.
Well, actually . . .
It is 1942 in France. Hitler reigns. The French are under German occupation.
Germany has created its own studio in France called Continental Films. It is under the control of the German studio UFA. Its chief and chief censor, Alfred Greven, has final say over everything. If he does not like your subject matter, you may not make your movie.
American films were banned. Forbidden.
German, French, and Italian film production diminished greatly. The films that were made were escapist. Musicals and melodramas. Avoiding references to the turpitudes of the time.
Filmmakers filmed anyway.
To make a movie was an act of courage.
To refrain, an act of cowardice.
Carné needed to work. He needed the sound of the camera gears, of film turning through the camera. The light flickering through the lens. He claimed his name, Carné, was an anagram of écran, the French word for "screen."
Filmmakers are passionate people.
So he made a movie set in the Middle Ages. A time so far removed from the present age that no censor would possibly interfere.
And none did.
Gilles and Dominique ride their horses into town. Or, to the castle, as it were.
They are dressed as minstrels, she as a man, coming to call at court.
A man at the bog is fishing for frogs.
He encourages them. They gain entrance. They perform.
Renaud, the man overseeing the feast, is a fussy pants. Or, fussy tights, as it were. Grouchy. Irritable. These minstrels displease him.
His fiancé, Anne, enjoys the music. Wants to hear more.
His father, the Baron, is agreeable. Affable.
They dance. A courtly dance. Like a slow line dance. With partners. With strings.
Gilles and Dominique sit and watch. They glance at each other.
They are up to something.
She plays her lute. Her clothes change. Magically. She is now dressed as a woman.
Everything stops.
All the people are frozen. Magically. Gilles and Dominique walk among them.
He goes to Anne. She goes to Renaud. Anne and Renaud each awaken in a trance.
Dominique leads Renaud to the courtyard.
Gilles leads Anne to the garden.
They woo them. Play with their minds. Toy with their hearts. Confuse them.
They lead them back. Put them back in their places in the dance. And return to their own seats.
Dominique plays her lute. Her clothes change. Magically. She is dressed as a man again.
Everything starts.
The dance continues.
But now the magic has begun. And everything at court will be affected.
Who are these people? These visitors of the night?
They are envoys of the Devil.
They made a pact with him when they were young. Very young. And now they do his bidding. Messing with people's minds. Toying with their hearts. Confusing them.
The next day at the hunt Renaud will go for Dominique. He knows she is a woman. No one else knows.
Except his father. The Baron. He too will go for Dominique. She plays him too. He knows she is a woman.
Renaud is already jealous of Anne. Insanely jealous of Gilles' apparent interest in Anne. Now he is jealous of Dominique, and of his father's apparent interest in her.
Meanwhile, Anne loves Gilles. Truly loves him.
She realizes that Renaud's love for her is not true love. It is born of jealousy. He wants to own her. To possess her. To control her. But true love sets free. She has found true love.
Over the next few days the objectives of the envoys advance, but with problems.
The humans do not fully fall for their machinations. Or they do but they fly through them.
Things are not going as planned.
Anne is innocent. Pure. Trusting. She believes in love. She loves truly.
Somehow this just keeps getting in the way.
The Devil himself appears. He is needed to get this deal done.
His envoys, Gilles and Dominique, are unable to make the close. Unable to seal the deal.
They keep getting thwarted by love. By Anne's love. By the Baron's love. By the love of . . .
They are starting to discover love themselves.
Things are not working out.
The Devil woos Anne. Calls her. Lures her.
But he discovers the limits of his power. The love in her heart is outside of his control. Beyond his reach.
He cannot do everything he desires. There is a break in his circuit. This confuses him.
Will the love in Anne's heart be enough to protect her from the Devil's devices?
Will it be enough to free even Gilles himself from his lifelong pact?
The film was a huge success.
It was one of the most successful releases during the war.
It was not a musical or a melodrama, but it too, on the surface, seemed like an escapist film.
Avoiding references to the turpitudes of the time.
Unless, perhaps, it was an allegory of the occupation.
And a declaration that the love in the hearts of the people would triumph over the Devil.
Over the Devil Hitler.
Carné insisted No.
But the filmgoing public, the people of France, believed otherwise.
No comments:
Post a Comment