Monday, January 7, 2019
566 - The Story of a Cheat, France, 1936. Dir. Sacha Guitry.
This movie is not the story of an adulterer.
It is the story of a cheat at cards.
And other things.
He was only a cheat at cards for seven of his around fifty-five years of age--as he has aspired since he was twelve to live a good, clean life----but somehow people keep showing up in his life to pull him back into a lifestyle of shenanigans.
It all began when he as a child stole eight sous from the till of his parents' store.
He was punished with not not being allowed to eat his favorite mushrooms for supper that night.
The rest of his family ate the mushrooms. The mushrooms were provided by a gardener who mistakenly selected poisonous mushrooms. So all other eleven members of the blended family of twelve died that night. In their sleep.
One might call this a black comedy.
The story is framed in the present. Our protagonist, who is named Le Tricheur--or The Cheater, or The Cheat--sits at an outdoor cafe across the street from the house he no longer owns, and writes his memoirs.
As he tells his story, we go into flashbacks of the different phases of his life and see things play out as he narrates them.
He encounters wild coincidences throughout his life, and nothing ever seems to go as he wants it to. Yet he is reconciled to what he sees as fate, so he relays his story with an amused acquiescence.
The film was written, directed by, and stars Sacha Guitry, who has an offbeat sense of humor.
His style for the thirties reminds one of what Wes Anderson is doing today. Quirky. Dark. Humorous. Emotionally distant. Cynically ironic. With flashbacks. With voice-over. With precise camera movements. Heavy on production value. Highly stylized.
In fact, one would not be surprised to learn that Sacha Guitry has influenced Wes Anderson.
Our first impression is that he stands alone in French film history for his particular style. Similar in the way Jacques Tati does.
We will watch a few more of his films over the next few days, so we are about to get to know him better.
* * * *
Tonight is the CFP Championship game.
Roll Tide.
Monday, January 7, 2019
Sunday, January 6, 2019
565 - Les Miserables, Part 3, France, 1934. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
Sunday, January 6, 2019
565 - Les Miserables, Part 3, France, 1934. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
LIBERTY, SWEET LIBERTY.
Time for the insurgency. The Revolution. The barricade.
With Raymond Bernard, it is not going to be romantic. It is going to be truthful. Painful. Fighting leads to death.
Marius goes to fight. Gavroche goes to fight. Eponine disguises herself to cross lines to bring a letter to Marius.
Eponine reveals her love to Marius, as she gives Cosette's love letter to Marius.
Eponine dies.
Marius is wounded.
Gavroche dies.
Jean Valjean saves Marius' life.
Jean Valjean finds Inspector Javert and has the opportunity to kill him or take him prisoner.
Jean Valjean sets Inspector Javert free.
Javert cannot believe it.
He is going to arrest Valjean anyway. His conscience gets to him. He lets Valjean free. He jumps in the river.
Jean Valjean brings Marius to his grandfather. He is nursed, nurtured, healed, restored. Marius and his grandfather are restored.
Marius and Cosette are married.
Jean Valjean is about to die.
He tells his son-in-law his story. He is not Cosette's father. He was a convict. He rescued Cosette from the Thenardiers for her mother Fantine. He gave his life to care for her.
Jean Valjean gives Marius and Cosette the candlesticks. The two silver candlesticks.
Symbols of mercy. Forgiveness. Restoration. Salvation.
Love. Not feelings. But forgiveness. And a lifetime of looking out for the good of the other.
Raymond Bernard has created a major work. Both in the history of Les Miserables adaptations and in the history of film.
His film is epic in scope and contemporary in execution. With production design, compositions, lighting, and acting working together at a high level.
Harry Bauer plays Jean Valjean as a convict, as a poor man, as a town mayor, and as a gentleman, over the course of decades in his life. He also plays the Jean Valjean lookalike Champmathieu. In all, at least four characterizations, three of which are the same man in different phases and manifestations of his life. He plays him with depth and power.
This is a film to watch. And to watch again.
* * * *
My nose is running tears
O my friend Bugeaud
Lend me your gendarmes
I'll tell them what I know
In their blue coats
And feathered shako
Make way for the people
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
You know, Mr. Marius. I think I was a bit in love with you.
I want you to have two silver candlesticks.
My Darling, your happiness has been the sole purpose of my life.
565 - Les Miserables, Part 3, France, 1934. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
LIBERTY, SWEET LIBERTY.
Time for the insurgency. The Revolution. The barricade.
With Raymond Bernard, it is not going to be romantic. It is going to be truthful. Painful. Fighting leads to death.
Marius goes to fight. Gavroche goes to fight. Eponine disguises herself to cross lines to bring a letter to Marius.
Eponine reveals her love to Marius, as she gives Cosette's love letter to Marius.
Eponine dies.
Marius is wounded.
Gavroche dies.
Jean Valjean saves Marius' life.
Jean Valjean finds Inspector Javert and has the opportunity to kill him or take him prisoner.
Jean Valjean sets Inspector Javert free.
Javert cannot believe it.
He is going to arrest Valjean anyway. His conscience gets to him. He lets Valjean free. He jumps in the river.
Jean Valjean brings Marius to his grandfather. He is nursed, nurtured, healed, restored. Marius and his grandfather are restored.
Marius and Cosette are married.
Jean Valjean is about to die.
He tells his son-in-law his story. He is not Cosette's father. He was a convict. He rescued Cosette from the Thenardiers for her mother Fantine. He gave his life to care for her.
Jean Valjean gives Marius and Cosette the candlesticks. The two silver candlesticks.
Symbols of mercy. Forgiveness. Restoration. Salvation.
Love. Not feelings. But forgiveness. And a lifetime of looking out for the good of the other.
Raymond Bernard has created a major work. Both in the history of Les Miserables adaptations and in the history of film.
His film is epic in scope and contemporary in execution. With production design, compositions, lighting, and acting working together at a high level.
Harry Bauer plays Jean Valjean as a convict, as a poor man, as a town mayor, and as a gentleman, over the course of decades in his life. He also plays the Jean Valjean lookalike Champmathieu. In all, at least four characterizations, three of which are the same man in different phases and manifestations of his life. He plays him with depth and power.
This is a film to watch. And to watch again.
* * * *
My nose is running tears
O my friend Bugeaud
Lend me your gendarmes
I'll tell them what I know
In their blue coats
And feathered shako
Make way for the people
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
You know, Mr. Marius. I think I was a bit in love with you.
I want you to have two silver candlesticks.
My Darling, your happiness has been the sole purpose of my life.
Saturday, January 5, 2019
564 - Les Miserables, Part 2, France, 1934. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
Saturday, January 4, 2019
564 - Les Miserables, Part 2, France, 1934. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
So long as poverty and misery still exist on earth, works such as this may not be in vain. - Victor Hugo.
THE THENARDIERS
Harry-Baur - Jean Valjean / M. Madeleine / Champmathieu / M. Fauchelevent
Charles Vanel - Javert
Montfermeil is having a fair.
It is Christmas.
The town square. People are out. A man shows a bear on a leash for entertainment. A man eats fire.
Cosettte plays Cinderella to Mde. Thenardier and her two daughters.
Cosette carries an empty water bucket, looking as if she came straight from the drawing. The one made famous by the musical. The girl with the round cap, with her hair blowing in the breeze, with a ragged shirt, a long skirt, bare feet, and a giant broom. The cropped bust was used in 1980. The etching from the drawing was made in 1862 for the novel, drawn 118 years before the musical.
Cosette stops to look at a doll in a store window. It is fancy. It is pretty. It costs 30 francs. She smiles. It has lace. The dress is velvet. The skirt is silk.
Mme. Thenardier approaches, with her own daughters, and yells at Cosette. Hurry up. Do not lose the 20 sous I gave you. She sends Cosette out into the dark of night to fetch the water.
Then she buys her own daughters each a doll.
Cosette walks in the dark woods. Rocks look like skulls. She jumps with fright. She finds the spring. Lowers the bucket. The bucket is almost as tall as she is. When she raises it, with force, the coin falls from her pocket. She does not see it.
The water is heavy. The bucket is full. She stops. She can go no farther. She prays.
A man appears. Is it? Yes. It is Jean Valjean. In the guise of M. Madeleine. He is on his way to the Thenardiers' inn to find Cosette and to take her and care for her for Fantine.
They walk back to town together. He carries the bucket for her. When they get to town she asks to carry it. She says Mde. Thenardier will beat her if she sees him carrying the bucket for her.
At the inn, M. Madeleine watches as the Thenardiers girls play with their dolls.
Cosette watches them as she crochets. Looking with longing. The girls abandon the dolls for the cat, dressing up the cat like a doll, taking the dolls for granted.
Cosette picks it up. Holds it. Cradles it. Loves it.
M. Madeleine leaves and returns with the big doll from the window. He gives it to Cosette. The Thenardiers are stunned.
He states his business. He is here to collect Cosette. They deny him. Thenardier wants 1,500 francs. Madeleine promptly agrees. Thenardier wishes he had asked for more. He withdraws his offer. Madeleine shows him the letter Fantine wrote and signed before her death, requesting they relinquish Cosette to the bearer of the letter. Thenardier demands a thousand crowns. M. Madeleine takes Cosette and leaves immediately.
Years later, Jean Valjean celebrates Cosette's sixteenth birthday. He is no longer mayor of Montreuil but lives in in Paris. He no longer goes by M. Madeleine but by M. Ursule Fauchelevent. He is in the National Guard.
Meanwhile, a young man name Marius, a revolutionary, has fallen in love with Cosette. He intends to marry her. He asks his own father for permission. He is denied. He intends to marry her anyway.
Marius knows the Thenardiers as neighbors but does not know they have a history with Jean Valjean and Cosette. They are now the Jondrettes and live in the Gorbeau House, where Valjean and Cosette stayed for a time. In addition to their daughters Eponine and Azelma, they now have a son Gavroche.
Valjean, as Fauchelevent, and Cosette pay a visit to the Jondrettes as philanthropists. They enter the house where they once stayed. Valjean does not recognize Jondrette as Thenardier, but Thenardier recognizes Fauchelevent as Valjean. He whispers to his family that they are to play it up to get as much money out of him as possible. Then they will plot their revenge.
Marius hears them through a crack in the wall.
With good intentions, Marius goes to Inspector Javert to tell him of the plot in order to save M. Fauchelevent's life. But in the process he gives him away.
Javert comes to call on M. Fauchelevent. He informs him he believes he is Jean Valjean. Fauchelevent denies it. He shows him his papers. While Javert is looking at them, he flips the table cloth, with candle, over Javert's head and makes his escape.
In the novel Valjean has two houses in Paris. In the movie they simply mention that he is now safe, having gone to the other house.
Marius goes to tell Cosette her father is safe. They meet in a garden. She has heard. She informs him they are escaping to England, maybe tomorrow. She will give him the address. He can join them. Marius states that he cannot afford to come. He is in debt to everyone. He has burned his bridges with his grandfather.
Her father arrives. Sees her with a boy. Tells him to leave his daughter alone. Cosette says if you only knew what Marius has done to protect you. Marius says I respect you; you are her father; but your daughter and I love each other, and you cannot change that.
Marius leaves.
Cosette weeps on Valjean's shoulder.
He asks about Marius' parents. She says he has just one grandfather, M. Gillenormand. She knows the address. He will go speak with them. They will no longer leave for England. Valjean will stay for his daughter. Put his life and freedom at risk again. Because he loves his daughter.
Cosette hugs him. She loves him. He basks in her love.
As they begin to leave the garden they see a group of wagons going by on the road below. A convoy of convicts. The men in the wagons writhe like souls tormented in hell. The men walking beside the wagons, the guards, whip them. They are taking them to the penal colonies.
Cosette stairs at them with compassion in her eyes.
"Poor things," she exclaims.
Jean Valjean looks at them with deep sadness of familiarity. He has been there. He remembers.
Cosette asks about them.
Are they human?
He responds.
Sometimes.
* * * *
Still here, you little guttersnipe?
A clear conscious has nothing to fear.
Sir, can I have my bucket back?
Why?
If she sees you carrying it for me, she'll beat me.
Thenardiers Aubergiste. Innkeeper.
So there you are, you little scamp.
Suppose someone were to take her off your hands.
I'm an honest man. The child's a sacred trust.
I promised her mother to love her like my own.
We can't tear our hearts out for 1,500 francs.
"Mr. Thenardier, please entrust Cosette to the bearer of this letter. He will pay you all expenses due. Respectfully yours, Fantine."
Not even a goodbye kiss, the ungrateful wench!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Where are you, Father? What are you thinking about?
You, Cosette, when you were a little girl.
I'm still your little girl.
Has the air of Paris changed me?
Cosette. Such a coquette.
Even when I marry I'll never leave you. Ever.
If Caesar were to offer me glory and war
And I had to leave the mother I adore
I would tell mighty Caesar
Take back your scepter and chariot
My dear mother means more
My mother is the republic!
Police spies or not, nothing can stop us now.
They crushed the Revolution of 1830.
That of 1832 shall triumph.
Tomorrow is General Lamark's funeral.
Forgive these gentlemen. They don't know who they're dealing with.
Well, I'm an orphan again.
Some folks prefer drivin'
They got no time to lose
But I prefer arrivin'
By wearin' out my shoes.
564 - Les Miserables, Part 2, France, 1934. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
So long as poverty and misery still exist on earth, works such as this may not be in vain. - Victor Hugo.
THE THENARDIERS
Harry-Baur - Jean Valjean / M. Madeleine / Champmathieu / M. Fauchelevent
Charles Vanel - Javert
Montfermeil is having a fair.
It is Christmas.
The town square. People are out. A man shows a bear on a leash for entertainment. A man eats fire.
Cosettte plays Cinderella to Mde. Thenardier and her two daughters.
Cosette carries an empty water bucket, looking as if she came straight from the drawing. The one made famous by the musical. The girl with the round cap, with her hair blowing in the breeze, with a ragged shirt, a long skirt, bare feet, and a giant broom. The cropped bust was used in 1980. The etching from the drawing was made in 1862 for the novel, drawn 118 years before the musical.
Cosette stops to look at a doll in a store window. It is fancy. It is pretty. It costs 30 francs. She smiles. It has lace. The dress is velvet. The skirt is silk.
Mme. Thenardier approaches, with her own daughters, and yells at Cosette. Hurry up. Do not lose the 20 sous I gave you. She sends Cosette out into the dark of night to fetch the water.
Then she buys her own daughters each a doll.
Cosette walks in the dark woods. Rocks look like skulls. She jumps with fright. She finds the spring. Lowers the bucket. The bucket is almost as tall as she is. When she raises it, with force, the coin falls from her pocket. She does not see it.
The water is heavy. The bucket is full. She stops. She can go no farther. She prays.
A man appears. Is it? Yes. It is Jean Valjean. In the guise of M. Madeleine. He is on his way to the Thenardiers' inn to find Cosette and to take her and care for her for Fantine.
They walk back to town together. He carries the bucket for her. When they get to town she asks to carry it. She says Mde. Thenardier will beat her if she sees him carrying the bucket for her.
At the inn, M. Madeleine watches as the Thenardiers girls play with their dolls.
Cosette watches them as she crochets. Looking with longing. The girls abandon the dolls for the cat, dressing up the cat like a doll, taking the dolls for granted.
M. Madeleine leaves and returns with the big doll from the window. He gives it to Cosette. The Thenardiers are stunned.
He states his business. He is here to collect Cosette. They deny him. Thenardier wants 1,500 francs. Madeleine promptly agrees. Thenardier wishes he had asked for more. He withdraws his offer. Madeleine shows him the letter Fantine wrote and signed before her death, requesting they relinquish Cosette to the bearer of the letter. Thenardier demands a thousand crowns. M. Madeleine takes Cosette and leaves immediately.
Years later, Jean Valjean celebrates Cosette's sixteenth birthday. He is no longer mayor of Montreuil but lives in in Paris. He no longer goes by M. Madeleine but by M. Ursule Fauchelevent. He is in the National Guard.
Meanwhile, a young man name Marius, a revolutionary, has fallen in love with Cosette. He intends to marry her. He asks his own father for permission. He is denied. He intends to marry her anyway.
Marius knows the Thenardiers as neighbors but does not know they have a history with Jean Valjean and Cosette. They are now the Jondrettes and live in the Gorbeau House, where Valjean and Cosette stayed for a time. In addition to their daughters Eponine and Azelma, they now have a son Gavroche.
Valjean, as Fauchelevent, and Cosette pay a visit to the Jondrettes as philanthropists. They enter the house where they once stayed. Valjean does not recognize Jondrette as Thenardier, but Thenardier recognizes Fauchelevent as Valjean. He whispers to his family that they are to play it up to get as much money out of him as possible. Then they will plot their revenge.
Marius hears them through a crack in the wall.
With good intentions, Marius goes to Inspector Javert to tell him of the plot in order to save M. Fauchelevent's life. But in the process he gives him away.
Javert comes to call on M. Fauchelevent. He informs him he believes he is Jean Valjean. Fauchelevent denies it. He shows him his papers. While Javert is looking at them, he flips the table cloth, with candle, over Javert's head and makes his escape.
In the novel Valjean has two houses in Paris. In the movie they simply mention that he is now safe, having gone to the other house.
Marius goes to tell Cosette her father is safe. They meet in a garden. She has heard. She informs him they are escaping to England, maybe tomorrow. She will give him the address. He can join them. Marius states that he cannot afford to come. He is in debt to everyone. He has burned his bridges with his grandfather.
Her father arrives. Sees her with a boy. Tells him to leave his daughter alone. Cosette says if you only knew what Marius has done to protect you. Marius says I respect you; you are her father; but your daughter and I love each other, and you cannot change that.
Marius leaves.
Cosette weeps on Valjean's shoulder.
He asks about Marius' parents. She says he has just one grandfather, M. Gillenormand. She knows the address. He will go speak with them. They will no longer leave for England. Valjean will stay for his daughter. Put his life and freedom at risk again. Because he loves his daughter.
Cosette hugs him. She loves him. He basks in her love.
As they begin to leave the garden they see a group of wagons going by on the road below. A convoy of convicts. The men in the wagons writhe like souls tormented in hell. The men walking beside the wagons, the guards, whip them. They are taking them to the penal colonies.
Cosette stairs at them with compassion in her eyes.
"Poor things," she exclaims.
Jean Valjean looks at them with deep sadness of familiarity. He has been there. He remembers.
Cosette asks about them.
Are they human?
He responds.
Sometimes.
* * * *
Still here, you little guttersnipe?
A clear conscious has nothing to fear.
Sir, can I have my bucket back?
Why?
If she sees you carrying it for me, she'll beat me.
Thenardiers Aubergiste. Innkeeper.
So there you are, you little scamp.
Suppose someone were to take her off your hands.
I'm an honest man. The child's a sacred trust.
I promised her mother to love her like my own.
We can't tear our hearts out for 1,500 francs.
"Mr. Thenardier, please entrust Cosette to the bearer of this letter. He will pay you all expenses due. Respectfully yours, Fantine."
Not even a goodbye kiss, the ungrateful wench!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Where are you, Father? What are you thinking about?
You, Cosette, when you were a little girl.
I'm still your little girl.
Has the air of Paris changed me?
Cosette. Such a coquette.
Even when I marry I'll never leave you. Ever.
If Caesar were to offer me glory and war
And I had to leave the mother I adore
I would tell mighty Caesar
Take back your scepter and chariot
My dear mother means more
My mother is the republic!
Police spies or not, nothing can stop us now.
They crushed the Revolution of 1830.
That of 1832 shall triumph.
Tomorrow is General Lamark's funeral.
Forgive these gentlemen. They don't know who they're dealing with.
Well, I'm an orphan again.
Some folks prefer drivin'
They got no time to lose
But I prefer arrivin'
By wearin' out my shoes.
Friday, January 4, 2019
563 - Les Miserables, Part 1, France, 1934. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
Friday, January 4, 2019
563 - Les Miserables, Part 1, France, 1934. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
So long as poverty and misery still exist on earth, works such as this may not be in vain. - Victor Hugo.
TEMPEST IN A SKULL
Harry-Baur - Jean Valjean / M. Madeleine / Champmathieu
Charles Vanel - Javert
Jean Valjean, convict.
Released September 8, 1815.
Profession: tree trimmer.
Sentenced at the age of 25 to five years' hard labor on March 2, 1796, for breaking and entering and theft.
Additional sentences of 14 years for four escape attempts.
"This man is very dangerous."
Jean Valjean is large and strong. He helps to hold up the heavy statue at the town square long enough for the men to get a beam back under it and support it again. Because of his heroic service to the town, he is released a few months before his scheduled parole date.
The prison staff and civic leaders are satisfied with his behavior while in prison and appreciative for his contribution to the town. They would be happy for him to lead a quiet and peaceable life and for them never to see him again.
Inspector Javert, on the other hand, marks him.
Javert wants Jean Valjean like Captain Ahab wants Moby Dick.
It will become his lifelong quest to capture him.
A man and woman give Valjean a place to stay for the night. After he has settled in with them, he realizes that the man is a priest; indeed, a bishop. He eats a great meal and sleeps in a bed for the first time in nearly twenty years. Early the next morning he absconds with the silver.
When the police capture him and return him to the bishop, the bishop has the power to send Valjean to jail for good. But he does not. Instead, he tells the officials that he gave Valjean the silver, and that in fact he also gave him two candlesticks which Valjean forgot to take with him. So he adds the candlesticks to Valjean's possession.
The bishop forgives Jean Valjean. He sets him free. He simply whispers in his ear to become a good man and to dedicate his life to mercy and truth.
It is one of the great moments in literary history. Millions of people have read it, or seen it, for years since the year of its first publication.
Javert decides to walk north. He wants to get as far away as possible. He walks because he has no other means of transportation. And after being in jail for nineteen years, walking is good.
On one of his rest stops a boy drops a 40-sous coin, which Valjean steps on without seeing. Valjean does not understand the boy's protests, so he runs him off. When he discovers that he did indeed have the boy's coin, he tries to call him back, but the boy is gone. So Valjean holds on to the coin for life.
Jean Valjean eventually becomes the mayor of a town, M. Madeleine of Montreuil. He meets Fantine, who falls into a life of working the streets in order to provide from a distance for the love of her life, her daughter Cosette. The Thenardiers, innkeepers, are keeping Cosette and taking Fantine's money and keeping her in her situation.
Eventually, a man is captured who looks like Jean Valjean. M. Madeleine, the real Valjean, hears about it and resolves to defend the man even at the cost of his own freedom. He also promises Fantine that he will take Cosette and take care of her.
Fantine dies.
Jean Valjean rushes to the trial of the innocent man, Champmathieu, and after watching the prosecution lay out a damning case, he declares before the court that he is the real Jean Valjean. The court lets both men go free--Champmathieu, because M. Madeleine has vouched for his innocence, and Valjean, because Madeleine is an upstanding citizen in the community, and they do not fully believe he is really Valjean.
He returns in time to be with Fantine as she dies, and he promises that he is on his way to get Cosette.
But before Valjean can go, Javert enters and arrests him. Now he knows his true identity, and he will always get his man.
You may already know the plot of Les Miserables. Many people do. But you might not. This is a quick overview of the first of three sections of this four hour, forty-nine minute adaptation of the novel. The one many believe to be the most complete of the fifteen or more feature film adaptations that have been made around the world.
Raymond Bernard is a strong movie director. And we are grateful to have the opportunity to watch him, to listen to him, and to see him at work.
The cinematography is crisp and in focus.
The lighting is soft and beautiful. With hair lights and trim lights on everyone.
If you love Les Miserables, then you will love this film version--presuming you are willing to dispense with the songs from the musical, which came out nearly half a century later.
It is a wonderful telling of the story.
And we are happy that we will be watching more of it over the course of the next couple days.
* * * *
Victor Hugo published Les Miserables in 1862.
There have been at least 15 feature film versions of it, two television mini-series, a radio series made by Orson Welles, a television version in Japanese anime, three comic books, a couple of manga adaptations, etc.
53 adaptations
* * * *
So it never ends? After the chains comes the passport.
Yours is not to count. The state counts for you, and it is never wrong.
How do you know I'm not a criminal?
That's the Lord's concern.
He is not a thief. I gave it to him, along with two silver candlesticks.
I know you will use this silver to become an honest man. I'm convinced of it.
563 - Les Miserables, Part 1, France, 1934. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
So long as poverty and misery still exist on earth, works such as this may not be in vain. - Victor Hugo.
TEMPEST IN A SKULL
Harry-Baur - Jean Valjean / M. Madeleine / Champmathieu
Charles Vanel - Javert
Jean Valjean, convict.
Released September 8, 1815.
Profession: tree trimmer.
Sentenced at the age of 25 to five years' hard labor on March 2, 1796, for breaking and entering and theft.
Additional sentences of 14 years for four escape attempts.
"This man is very dangerous."
Jean Valjean is large and strong. He helps to hold up the heavy statue at the town square long enough for the men to get a beam back under it and support it again. Because of his heroic service to the town, he is released a few months before his scheduled parole date.
The prison staff and civic leaders are satisfied with his behavior while in prison and appreciative for his contribution to the town. They would be happy for him to lead a quiet and peaceable life and for them never to see him again.
Inspector Javert, on the other hand, marks him.
Javert wants Jean Valjean like Captain Ahab wants Moby Dick.
It will become his lifelong quest to capture him.
A man and woman give Valjean a place to stay for the night. After he has settled in with them, he realizes that the man is a priest; indeed, a bishop. He eats a great meal and sleeps in a bed for the first time in nearly twenty years. Early the next morning he absconds with the silver.
When the police capture him and return him to the bishop, the bishop has the power to send Valjean to jail for good. But he does not. Instead, he tells the officials that he gave Valjean the silver, and that in fact he also gave him two candlesticks which Valjean forgot to take with him. So he adds the candlesticks to Valjean's possession.
The bishop forgives Jean Valjean. He sets him free. He simply whispers in his ear to become a good man and to dedicate his life to mercy and truth.
It is one of the great moments in literary history. Millions of people have read it, or seen it, for years since the year of its first publication.
Javert decides to walk north. He wants to get as far away as possible. He walks because he has no other means of transportation. And after being in jail for nineteen years, walking is good.
On one of his rest stops a boy drops a 40-sous coin, which Valjean steps on without seeing. Valjean does not understand the boy's protests, so he runs him off. When he discovers that he did indeed have the boy's coin, he tries to call him back, but the boy is gone. So Valjean holds on to the coin for life.
Jean Valjean eventually becomes the mayor of a town, M. Madeleine of Montreuil. He meets Fantine, who falls into a life of working the streets in order to provide from a distance for the love of her life, her daughter Cosette. The Thenardiers, innkeepers, are keeping Cosette and taking Fantine's money and keeping her in her situation.
Eventually, a man is captured who looks like Jean Valjean. M. Madeleine, the real Valjean, hears about it and resolves to defend the man even at the cost of his own freedom. He also promises Fantine that he will take Cosette and take care of her.
Fantine dies.
Jean Valjean rushes to the trial of the innocent man, Champmathieu, and after watching the prosecution lay out a damning case, he declares before the court that he is the real Jean Valjean. The court lets both men go free--Champmathieu, because M. Madeleine has vouched for his innocence, and Valjean, because Madeleine is an upstanding citizen in the community, and they do not fully believe he is really Valjean.
He returns in time to be with Fantine as she dies, and he promises that he is on his way to get Cosette.
But before Valjean can go, Javert enters and arrests him. Now he knows his true identity, and he will always get his man.
You may already know the plot of Les Miserables. Many people do. But you might not. This is a quick overview of the first of three sections of this four hour, forty-nine minute adaptation of the novel. The one many believe to be the most complete of the fifteen or more feature film adaptations that have been made around the world.
Raymond Bernard is a strong movie director. And we are grateful to have the opportunity to watch him, to listen to him, and to see him at work.
The cinematography is crisp and in focus.
The lighting is soft and beautiful. With hair lights and trim lights on everyone.
If you love Les Miserables, then you will love this film version--presuming you are willing to dispense with the songs from the musical, which came out nearly half a century later.
It is a wonderful telling of the story.
And we are happy that we will be watching more of it over the course of the next couple days.
* * * *
Victor Hugo published Les Miserables in 1862.
There have been at least 15 feature film versions of it, two television mini-series, a radio series made by Orson Welles, a television version in Japanese anime, three comic books, a couple of manga adaptations, etc.
53 adaptations
* * * *
So it never ends? After the chains comes the passport.
Yours is not to count. The state counts for you, and it is never wrong.
How do you know I'm not a criminal?
That's the Lord's concern.
He is not a thief. I gave it to him, along with two silver candlesticks.
I know you will use this silver to become an honest man. I'm convinced of it.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
562 - Wooden Crosses, France, 1932. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
562 - Wooden Crosses, France, 1932. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
A company of soldiers stands at attention in columns in the field.
Cross fade.
The soldiers transform into a cemetery of wooden crosses. Standing in columns in the field.
Twenty seconds in and the movie has been told.
Powerfully.
It is war time. (Ecclesiastes 3:8 says there is one.)
A General Conscription is on in the 8th Arrondissement.
The Recruiting Office is open at Bureau No. 6.
It is World War I and the French are fighting the Krauts, their name for the Germans, and they have a town to retake.
And people want to go.
Men are signing up. Flocking to the bureau. "We want to go! We want to go!"
Gilbert wants to go. Adjudent Gilbert Demachy, that is.
He enlists.
He goes.
He is introduced to the men in his company.
Bouffioux, our cook.
Fouillard, our very own dandy.
Hamel, the serious one, the grandfather.
Belin, crafty and sings like nightingale.
Cruchet IS meaner than he looks.
Vairon is from your hometown, a real gentleman.
Broucke does not know the meaning of the word fear.
Lagy is the Captain's liaison.
Sulphart is the company loudmouth.
Get to know them. Before this is all over, some of them will live. Some of them will die.
Director Raymond Bernard smartly spends the first half of the movie with the men in the barracks, in the trenches, on their day off, buying goods at the commissary, eating lunch together, watching their comrade Mourache get promoted to Lieutenant, drilling, washing clothes, cleaning them of lice, sending and receiving mail, receiving knives as they are handed out.
So that you get to know them. As individual men with hearts and minds and histories and personalities.
And not just numbers.
Not miscellaneous soldiers.
But real human beings.
Vairon dies early. Not in battle but on active duty in the trenches. On night patrol. By friendly fire. An artillery shell hits him. Lands on him. Explodes in his chest.
We see him lying on his back upon the ground.
The off-screen-left light moves further left and down, making Vairon's shadow creep slowly long across the earth.
Two men on patrol hear a man singing at night. A German soldier. Across the way. Warm and tender. He is human too.
The cook brings soup to the men in the trenches.
The men stand in the trenches and hear someone digging still more deeply beneath them. It is the Germans. Laying mines. They are ordered to stay in their position. The mine goes off after they are sent on leave.
Mail call.
The postal clerk hands the mail to the commanding officer, and he distributes it. Each of the men has a letter from home.
Including Vairon. When the C.O. reads Vairon's name, there is a moment of silence.
He keeps the letter. He leaves the men and gets some fresh flowers. Goes to Vairon's grave. Marked by a wooden cross.
He puts the flowers on the grave. Tears up the letter and sprinkles it over the flowers. He removes his hat and stands at attention. Silently paying respect to his lost man.
The men attend the funeral in the cathedral.
Ave Maria.
Bernard lets us sit and watch the procession in the large sanctuary, and listen to the beautiful song.
Along with the cries of pain of the wounded. As the military has set up a hospital inside the cathedral. And the wounded are lying there. Moaning. With groanings that cannot be uttered.
We end the first half of the film with the sacred, the holy, touching upon the wounded and hurting.
And then--
The war.
A war that feels as real as any fictional war you have seen on film.
First group, advance! Forward! Forward, men!
They run forward, into the fire. Their bayonets tilted forward, their bodies leaning forward, clouds of smoke billowing overhead. New smoke, new fire. Men run. Bodies fall.
Somehow in all of this they make headway.
They approach the town. Take a position. Prepare to charge. The Captain leads the charge. Immediately he is hit. The Lieutenant takes over for him. Without hesitating. The men must move on.
* * * *
Always the same necks on the line.
The complaint window's closed.
You're nuts to take your shoes off. We're on alert.
I'll go in my socks.
She hasn't written in two weeks. It's never been this long. It's driving me crazy.
They treat you well when you're on leave?
They don't poke us with pitchforks.
Smells like a barbershop. Our buddy here smells like a dame.
Not even half full for boys facing death.
How about some target practice.
How many of them were there?
Eleven. And four gunners.
If you want to make me a happy man
Marguerite! Marguerite!
If you want to make me a happy man
Marguerite, give me your heart.
It burns me up that they made Mourache a lieutenant.
You know, lice aren't all that bad. They suck out what ails you. Take my little brother. Lice cured his meningitis.
Monsieur Vairon
39 Regiment d'infanterie
5 Compagnie
2 Bataillon
Secteur Postal 34
Protect us, O Lady of the Dogfaces. We accept it all: guard duty in the rain, sleepless nights, days with no bread. At least let us live. That's all we ask: to go on living, or at least to never lose faith, to continue to hope despite everything, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Look at those curves.
Golden and sweet and good enough to eat.
Where are you going, little lambs?
To the slaughterhouse.
They say this is the last big push. Have you heard that?
That's only Artillery mouthing off.
This is for France, my friends. Make it good.
The village will be tough to capture. It's swarming with machine guns.
They're tough. They'll get through.
They've broken through the first line. They're continuing to advance.
Good work! You're brave men! My thanks, boys.
Let's break through their third line!
Third Squadron. On my command!
The Captain's dead.
That wasn't a battle; it was a massacre.
I'd call it a victory. Because I made it out alive.
562 - Wooden Crosses, France, 1932. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
A company of soldiers stands at attention in columns in the field.
Cross fade.
The soldiers transform into a cemetery of wooden crosses. Standing in columns in the field.
Twenty seconds in and the movie has been told.
Powerfully.
It is war time. (Ecclesiastes 3:8 says there is one.)
A General Conscription is on in the 8th Arrondissement.
The Recruiting Office is open at Bureau No. 6.
It is World War I and the French are fighting the Krauts, their name for the Germans, and they have a town to retake.
And people want to go.
Men are signing up. Flocking to the bureau. "We want to go! We want to go!"
Gilbert wants to go. Adjudent Gilbert Demachy, that is.
He enlists.
He goes.
He is introduced to the men in his company.
Bouffioux, our cook.
Fouillard, our very own dandy.
Hamel, the serious one, the grandfather.
Belin, crafty and sings like nightingale.
Cruchet IS meaner than he looks.
Vairon is from your hometown, a real gentleman.
Broucke does not know the meaning of the word fear.
Lagy is the Captain's liaison.
Sulphart is the company loudmouth.
Get to know them. Before this is all over, some of them will live. Some of them will die.
Director Raymond Bernard smartly spends the first half of the movie with the men in the barracks, in the trenches, on their day off, buying goods at the commissary, eating lunch together, watching their comrade Mourache get promoted to Lieutenant, drilling, washing clothes, cleaning them of lice, sending and receiving mail, receiving knives as they are handed out.
So that you get to know them. As individual men with hearts and minds and histories and personalities.
And not just numbers.
Not miscellaneous soldiers.
But real human beings.
Vairon dies early. Not in battle but on active duty in the trenches. On night patrol. By friendly fire. An artillery shell hits him. Lands on him. Explodes in his chest.
The off-screen-left light moves further left and down, making Vairon's shadow creep slowly long across the earth.
Two men on patrol hear a man singing at night. A German soldier. Across the way. Warm and tender. He is human too.
The cook brings soup to the men in the trenches.
The men stand in the trenches and hear someone digging still more deeply beneath them. It is the Germans. Laying mines. They are ordered to stay in their position. The mine goes off after they are sent on leave.
Mail call.
The postal clerk hands the mail to the commanding officer, and he distributes it. Each of the men has a letter from home.
Including Vairon. When the C.O. reads Vairon's name, there is a moment of silence.
He keeps the letter. He leaves the men and gets some fresh flowers. Goes to Vairon's grave. Marked by a wooden cross.
He puts the flowers on the grave. Tears up the letter and sprinkles it over the flowers. He removes his hat and stands at attention. Silently paying respect to his lost man.
The men attend the funeral in the cathedral.
Ave Maria.
Bernard lets us sit and watch the procession in the large sanctuary, and listen to the beautiful song.
Along with the cries of pain of the wounded. As the military has set up a hospital inside the cathedral. And the wounded are lying there. Moaning. With groanings that cannot be uttered.
We end the first half of the film with the sacred, the holy, touching upon the wounded and hurting.
And then--
The war.
A war that feels as real as any fictional war you have seen on film.
Raymond Bernard has done something indeed.
He filmed the film on the actual battlegrounds. With actual artillery. And he required that no man act in the film who had not already seen actual combat.
Our man Gilbert, for example, is played by the French movie star Pierre Blanchar. Who really fought in World War I. In Verdun. In 1916. And was personally exposed to chemical weapons. Poison gas. Mustard gas. Chlorine. Phosogene.
And then this happened:
As they were exploding real ordnance on the real battlefield, and the earth was ripped open again, they uncovered the corpses of men who had died and gone missing, now discovered for the first time since the war.
And then this happened:
As they were exploding real ordnance on the real battlefield, and the earth was ripped open again, they uncovered the corpses of men who had died and gone missing, now discovered for the first time since the war.
The sound is something to behold. Talkies are still in their infancy, yet Bernard utilizes sound design as well as anyone might hope to do today. He records real artillery, real Howitzers, real rifles, real pistols, real grenades. Up close. At a distance. Far away. When the men talk in the trenches, one still hears explosions in other places. The constant din of war.
This war feels real.
The camera work is complex and sophisticated. Sharp focus. Crisp lighting. Artistic compositions. Low angles. High angles. Dutch angles. Tracking shots. Sometimes long tracking shots. And handheld work, in 1932, in battle.
The men lie in the trenches, ducking behind the sand bags. Watching the artillery rain down upon them. Waiting their command to run out into the rain.
They are surrounded by explosions, fire, smoke, dust flying, netting, barbed wire.
The Captain watches his watch.
They are surrounded by explosions, fire, smoke, dust flying, netting, barbed wire.
The Captain watches his watch.
Ready?
They run forward, into the fire. Their bayonets tilted forward, their bodies leaning forward, clouds of smoke billowing overhead. New smoke, new fire. Men run. Bodies fall.
Somehow in all of this they make headway.
They approach the town. Take a position. Prepare to charge. The Captain leads the charge. Immediately he is hit. The Lieutenant takes over for him. Without hesitating. The men must move on.
Inside the town the men are walking and throwing grenades from their knapsacks.
They reach the cemetery.
And prepare for battle. Across the graves.
The irony is not lost on them.
The Germans take cover on one side of the cemetery. The French take cover on the other. They squat behind tombstones. Behind sepulchers. A few use a freshly dug grave as a trench.
They wait. Hours pass. They grow thirsty. Thirsty unto death. A French soldier runs to get water. The Germans see him and shoot. Another French soldier runs to get water. He lifts his wounded comrade and returns to the French side, in the midst of gunfire, a hero.
The wounded soldier is dying.
And we stop to take a moment to watch the spiritual life of a man about to enter eternity.
He tells his brothers in arms to tell his wife that he will not forgive her. For what she did with another man. Living it up back home while he was dying in battle. He hardens his heart. Chooses bitterness. Points a finger. Plays the accuser.
Satan is the accuser.
What occurs when a man takes up that mantle?
Imagine what might happen to him forever if he does not forgive.
Death is nothing compared to eternity.
A moment passes. The tension increases.
He changes his mind. He changes heart. He changes his confession.
He forgives.
For those who are spiritually attuned it is a powerful moment.
The man dies and passes into eternity. One can only imagine the consequences of his decision.
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. - Matthew 6:14-15.
The battle rages for
10 Days.
10 Days.
10 Days.
We get at least three titles telling us this fact. Interspersed with fighting. Driving home the point.
If you are a child of the 80s, you may remember Ni-ni-ni-ni-nineteen. Ni-ni-ni-ni-nineteen. That was Paul Hardcastle.
If you are a child of the 60s, you might remember Number 9, Number 9, Number 9, Number 9. That was, well, you know.
Now we have 10 Days. 10 Days. 10 Days.
After they capture the town, they hold a victory parade. Civilians line the streets, either residents who had been under occupation or citizens who have come home. A woman wipes her tears, denoting the feeling of freedom.
Bernard could end there, on a note of victory, and send the viewer out feeling great. After all, it would be historically accurate. The Allies defeated the Central Powers and won the war. Hooray.
But that is not Bernard's mission. He has other things to say.
Such as when a group of men in the trenches use the body of a fallen comrade as a parapet, to protect them from getting hit.
The fighting continues.
Gilbert is on patrol. Guard duty. And hears the cries of a soldier stuck in No Man's Land. Crying out for water. For a drop to drink.
Gilbert is hit.
And we watch
As he slowly
Painfully
Expires.
* * * *
Always the same necks on the line.
The complaint window's closed.
You're nuts to take your shoes off. We're on alert.
I'll go in my socks.
She hasn't written in two weeks. It's never been this long. It's driving me crazy.
They treat you well when you're on leave?
They don't poke us with pitchforks.
Smells like a barbershop. Our buddy here smells like a dame.
Not even half full for boys facing death.
How about some target practice.
How many of them were there?
Eleven. And four gunners.
If you want to make me a happy man
Marguerite! Marguerite!
If you want to make me a happy man
Marguerite, give me your heart.
It burns me up that they made Mourache a lieutenant.
You know, lice aren't all that bad. They suck out what ails you. Take my little brother. Lice cured his meningitis.
Monsieur Vairon
39 Regiment d'infanterie
5 Compagnie
2 Bataillon
Secteur Postal 34
Protect us, O Lady of the Dogfaces. We accept it all: guard duty in the rain, sleepless nights, days with no bread. At least let us live. That's all we ask: to go on living, or at least to never lose faith, to continue to hope despite everything, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Look at those curves.
Golden and sweet and good enough to eat.
Where are you going, little lambs?
To the slaughterhouse.
They say this is the last big push. Have you heard that?
That's only Artillery mouthing off.
This is for France, my friends. Make it good.
The village will be tough to capture. It's swarming with machine guns.
They're tough. They'll get through.
They've broken through the first line. They're continuing to advance.
Good work! You're brave men! My thanks, boys.
Let's break through their third line!
Third Squadron. On my command!
The Captain's dead.
That wasn't a battle; it was a massacre.
I'd call it a victory. Because I made it out alive.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
561 - The Woman on the Beach, United States, 1947. Dir. Jean Renoir.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
561 - The Woman on the Beach, United States, 1947. Dir. Jean Renoir.
When two men love the same woman, sometimes the men become friends anyway.
At least one of them tries to be. The other one might have something else up his sleeve.
Scott and Todd both love Peggy.
Peggy and Eve both love Scott.
But Todd and Peggy are married.
And Scott and Eve are engaged.
Love can be so complicated.
Well, love, actually, is quite simple. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not boastful or proud.
It is romance that is complicated.
Romance is jealous. Jealous sometimes to the point of wanting to eliminate the third party. The one that is causing the jealousy. The one that is in the way.
Romance can be impatient. Romance can be unkind.
Because romance is based on these feelings I have inside me that make me feel so wonderful when I am with the other person, and I want so badly to have these feelings all the time and not to allow anything to get in the way; therefore, I will do everything in my power to nurture and protect these feelings.
We have all been there.
But what if it gets even more complicated.
What if Scott is Lt. Scott Burnett of the United States Coast Guard, and what if he has post traumatic stress disorder from the time that his ship hit a mine and exploded. What if he still has dreams of sinking to the bottom of the ocean and walking across the ocean floor, stepping over skeletons, and approaching the mysterious woman who comes to him, in his dreams, to love him.
The blonde women. With the face of the brunette.
And what if Scott tries to marry his fiancee Eve right away, but she puts him off because she wants everything to be just right, and what if her delay leads to his stumbling into a relationship with Peggy.
And what if Eve's own brother Bill once dated Peggy.
And what if Tod is blind from the time he and his wife got drunk and got into a big argument and she threw a glass at him and the shards went into his face and somehow severed the optic nerve, behind both eyes, and what if he is a painter, a good painter, in the process of becoming famous, and his blindness immediately ended his life's pursuit and rendered him helpless in his vocation.
And what if Peggy is complicated. And stays with Tod. But falls for Scott.
As you can see, there is some drama going on here.
It is 1947, and RKO is making a romantic drama. A kind of a film noir wherein they plan to bring on veteran Jacques Tourneur as the director. But Joan Bennett, the star of the picture, insists on the Frenchman Jean Renoir. After all, his reputation precedes him. He made those great films in France in the 1930s, which by now have already become classics, which have people talking that maybe film can be art. After all. And here he is in America, having fled from France under German occupation, making American films for American studios.
Why not?
People tell the story of how the film was shown at a test screening and how it played poorly to the audience. And that Renoir had to go back and reshoot scenes, and cast a new actress for one of the roles, and re-edit everything. And how he did not make the movie he wanted to make.
I have not yet read of a comparison to Orson Welles with The Magnificent Ambersons or Touch of Evil--though they are probably out there--yet one gets the impression that Renoir felt, and his admirers feel, that the studio tampered with his film to the point of botching it.
Perhaps.
One certainly wishes he could see the film as Renoir intended to make it. The director's cut. Absolutely. It may have been brilliant. One suspects it had to be superior to the film-by-committee approach.
Yet the film that resulted from this very normal way of doing things--not that I am supporting test screenings for auteurs; just that I am observing that it was routine--is not so bad. It is a solid RKO film from 1947.
It stars Robert Ryan. And he is one of those actors whom one can watch regardless of the material. Put his name above the title, and we will go see it. And he delivers here.
So does Joan Bennett, whom you may or may not know, but she worked all the time in the 1930s and 40s.
Her husband is played by Charles Bickford, who played in so many movies you might know from that era, but in a role that you might not expect of him. One that is more layered and complex than the stalwart characters you might be used to seeing him play.
In some ways this film has a simple plot. In other ways it has richly layered and emotionally nuanced characters. These are roles actors would enjoy playing.
It is a film that should also reward repeated viewing.
* * * *
If you're so afraid of ghosts, Lieutenant, what about that jacket you're holding.
The way you looked at that life jacket as if it were something out of a bad dream.
We're pretty much alike, aren't we? You're the first one that seems to know how I feel.
561 - The Woman on the Beach, United States, 1947. Dir. Jean Renoir.
When two men love the same woman, sometimes the men become friends anyway.
At least one of them tries to be. The other one might have something else up his sleeve.
Scott and Todd both love Peggy.
Peggy and Eve both love Scott.
But Todd and Peggy are married.
And Scott and Eve are engaged.
Love can be so complicated.
Well, love, actually, is quite simple. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not jealous. Love is not boastful or proud.
It is romance that is complicated.
Romance is jealous. Jealous sometimes to the point of wanting to eliminate the third party. The one that is causing the jealousy. The one that is in the way.
Romance can be impatient. Romance can be unkind.
Because romance is based on these feelings I have inside me that make me feel so wonderful when I am with the other person, and I want so badly to have these feelings all the time and not to allow anything to get in the way; therefore, I will do everything in my power to nurture and protect these feelings.
We have all been there.
But what if it gets even more complicated.
What if Scott is Lt. Scott Burnett of the United States Coast Guard, and what if he has post traumatic stress disorder from the time that his ship hit a mine and exploded. What if he still has dreams of sinking to the bottom of the ocean and walking across the ocean floor, stepping over skeletons, and approaching the mysterious woman who comes to him, in his dreams, to love him.
The blonde women. With the face of the brunette.
And what if Scott tries to marry his fiancee Eve right away, but she puts him off because she wants everything to be just right, and what if her delay leads to his stumbling into a relationship with Peggy.
And what if Eve's own brother Bill once dated Peggy.
And what if Tod is blind from the time he and his wife got drunk and got into a big argument and she threw a glass at him and the shards went into his face and somehow severed the optic nerve, behind both eyes, and what if he is a painter, a good painter, in the process of becoming famous, and his blindness immediately ended his life's pursuit and rendered him helpless in his vocation.
And what if Peggy is complicated. And stays with Tod. But falls for Scott.
As you can see, there is some drama going on here.
It is 1947, and RKO is making a romantic drama. A kind of a film noir wherein they plan to bring on veteran Jacques Tourneur as the director. But Joan Bennett, the star of the picture, insists on the Frenchman Jean Renoir. After all, his reputation precedes him. He made those great films in France in the 1930s, which by now have already become classics, which have people talking that maybe film can be art. After all. And here he is in America, having fled from France under German occupation, making American films for American studios.
Why not?
People tell the story of how the film was shown at a test screening and how it played poorly to the audience. And that Renoir had to go back and reshoot scenes, and cast a new actress for one of the roles, and re-edit everything. And how he did not make the movie he wanted to make.
I have not yet read of a comparison to Orson Welles with The Magnificent Ambersons or Touch of Evil--though they are probably out there--yet one gets the impression that Renoir felt, and his admirers feel, that the studio tampered with his film to the point of botching it.
Perhaps.
One certainly wishes he could see the film as Renoir intended to make it. The director's cut. Absolutely. It may have been brilliant. One suspects it had to be superior to the film-by-committee approach.
Yet the film that resulted from this very normal way of doing things--not that I am supporting test screenings for auteurs; just that I am observing that it was routine--is not so bad. It is a solid RKO film from 1947.
It stars Robert Ryan. And he is one of those actors whom one can watch regardless of the material. Put his name above the title, and we will go see it. And he delivers here.
So does Joan Bennett, whom you may or may not know, but she worked all the time in the 1930s and 40s.
Her husband is played by Charles Bickford, who played in so many movies you might know from that era, but in a role that you might not expect of him. One that is more layered and complex than the stalwart characters you might be used to seeing him play.
In some ways this film has a simple plot. In other ways it has richly layered and emotionally nuanced characters. These are roles actors would enjoy playing.
It is a film that should also reward repeated viewing.
* * * *
If you're so afraid of ghosts, Lieutenant, what about that jacket you're holding.
The way you looked at that life jacket as if it were something out of a bad dream.
We're pretty much alike, aren't we? You're the first one that seems to know how I feel.
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
560 - Diary of a Chambermaid, United States, 1946. Dir. Jean Renoir.
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
560 - Diary of a Chambermaid, United States, 1946. Dir. Jean Renoir.
Only weak people sit around under trees wishing for things. It's better to do it yourself.
Celestine is talking to Captain Mauger, the master of the estate next door. Captain Mauger has just sat under the wishing tree, wishing out loud that Celeste would come to Paris with him and marry him.
But Celestine, chambermaid to the Lanlaire estate, recently sat under the same tree and wished that the heir, Georges Lanlaire, would take her to Paris and marry her.
It is July 14, the day of the annual celebration in Paris--what the movie does not explicitly call Bastille Day--and the mistress of the estate, Madame Lanlaire, has give the servants an hour in town to participate in the festivities.
Celestine and her fellow servant, the scullery maid Louise, were going to come with the valet Joseph, but he has stayed behind and encouraged them to go with Captain Mauger instead. Joseph wants Captain Mauger to be gone from his house so that Joseph can secretly enter it. Tomorrow he is going to take Celestine to Paris and marry her, and he has Mauger's money to take now that the Lanlaire silver is no longer available to him.
If you are keeping count of how many men might wish to take Celestine to Paris and marry her, you may add to your tally the Captain himself, Georges' father. He was the first one to make the offer.
In the beginning of our story, Celestine was riding the train from Paris, on her way to the country where the Lanlaire estate sits, preparing for her new job as their chambermaid.
While riding the train, she wrote in her diary.
May 15th
Today I am entering my new place, the twelfth in two years. What is wrong with me? I can certainly boast of having seen many houses and strange faces . . . and filthy souls.
We do not know what was wrong with her. We never get to see the old Celestine at work. Rather, we watch her transformed in the beginning of our movie, and we see the new Celestine from then on.
When she arrives at the station, Joseph meets her to pick her up. He asks for her references and he asks to see her hands. He is formal with her, and authoritative. He behaves as if he might be her new boss. But Celestine figures it out. She has been in the servant business too long to fall for that trick. And she noses him out for being the valet, just the valet, and nothing more. (Valet is pronounce with a voiced final t.)
So when he tries the same trick on the new scullery maid Louise, who has also just arrived at the station--apparently disembarking from a different train car--Celestine refuses to take it. Joseph rejects Louise based on her looks--she is plain--and tells her to take the train back to Paris. Louise states that she does not have the money. He tells her that is her problem. So Celestine stands up for Louise and informs Joseph that if the scullery maid is not being accepted, then the chambermaid is quitting too. Joseph walks to the wagon to consider it. Celestine is very beautiful. Joseph returns and accepts her demand. He takes them both.
For the first time, Celestine has stood up for herself. And she likes it.
She does it again when Joseph shows Celestine and Louise their bedroom, and it has only one bed. Louise offers to sleep on the floor, but Celestine demands that Joseph get her another bed.
After he leaves, she makes her decision. A life decision. Celestine is going to be somebody. Her own mistress. Not a servant. Not someone who takes orders. But someone who gives orders. She is going to find a master and get him to marry her.
So Celestine starts off on her new life's quest as a golddigger.
The first person she meets is Captain Lanlaire himself. The master of the estate. The boss. Only she thinks he is the cook. Partly because he comes and eats in the servants quarters. We learn pretty quickly that Madame Lanlaire wears the pants in the house--even though she wears beautiful formal dresses and gowns.
Celestine goes after Captain Lanlaire, yet when she gets him to invite her to Paris, she says he is just like all the other masters--which gets us to infer why she went through twelve estates in two years. And yet we see her in this case clearly instigate it. She openly wants his money.
And when she discovers that none of the money is in Lanlaire's name, she immediately switches to next-door-neighbor Captain Mauger, who does have money, and she works her lures on him. Despite his strangeness. Mauger is a Rumpelstiltskin, a manic sprite who eats flowers and throws rocks through windows. As he leaps and dances and throws, one expects him to start shouting "Ernest T. Bass! Ernest T. Bass!" Yet she happily goes after him when she thinks he has money.
Now we are here at the wishing tree, and Celestine is getting what she once wished for--the affection of a man of means--what seems all-to-easy for her to get from any man. But something has happened in the mean time.
She has fallen in love.
For real.
Not for money.
We know this because she writes in her diary.
Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges.
Georges is sick and may be dying. And his time in Paris has left him disillusioned and cynical. He has been away so long that Madame Lanlaire, the epitome of formal dignity, has practically thrust Celestine upon him by dressing her up in beautiful clothes and assigning to go on long walks with him.
It works, and Celestine sits under the wishing tree wishing for Georges, but Georges rejects her, or seems to, apparently not because he does not love her--he seems to love her very deeply--but because he is so overwhelmed by his feelings of hopelessness and futility.
The film is based on a novel by Octave Mirbeau, which was in turn adapted into a play by Andre Heuze and Thielly Nores.
The group of people who put the film together is really interesting.
Begin with Burgess Meredith. You know him as Rocky's manager Mickey in the first three Rocky movies (1976, 1979, 1982). He had a long and prolific career from the 1930s to the 1990s, and he established himself with his sixth film in the role of George in Lewis Milestone's version of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (1939).
Burgess Meredith wrote the screenplay and produced this film. He also played the role of the leprechaun-like Captain Mauger.
For the beautiful leading lady Celestine, he hired his own real-life wife, the movie star Paulette Goddard. Formerly married to Charlie Chaplin and his costar in Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1950). Bob Hope's sidekick in The Cat and the Canary (1939) and The Ghost Breakers (1940). She married rich, at 16, in real life, and would marry rich again in later life.
Dame Judith Anderson plays Madame Lanlaire. Imagine her as the strange Mrs. Danvers in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), or as Memnet in The Ten Commandments (1956), or as the Vulcan High Priestess in Star Trek III: Search for Spock (1984). Here she is not the head of the servants but the head of the house, and she carries herself with pride and decorum--until she gets her breakdown scenes near the end--one with her son Georges, pleading with him to stay and to love her, and the other with the valet Joseph, giving up her silver, and her security, to his demands.
Francis Lederer plays Joseph. He can be as stone-cold as Frankenstein's monster. Tall and measured and stoic. Celestine calls Joseph the Undertaker. Joseph tells Celestine they are both the same. That they look different on the outside, but inside they have the same heart. He is right when it comes to her first persona. They are both climbers, ruthless in their desire to take what they want in life.
Louise is played by none other than Irene Ryan, who would go on to play Granny in The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971). How funny that yesterday while watching The Southerner (1945), we observed that Beulah Bondi's riding on the back of the truck in her rocking chair reminded us of Irene Ryan's doing it seventeen years later. And then, here she is.
Jean Renoir films the movie with his typical brilliantly fluid, lyrical, and invisible camera movement. But he takes a departure from his usual realism. Yes, he observes class hierarchies, and one cannot watch this film without thinking of life in the chateau in The Rules of the Game (1939). But this one is a quirky comedy. It does not take itself very seriously, and it is a bit screwball.
This allows for the mercenary chambermaid to be transformed by love rather quickly and conveniently, but as entertainment goes we can go along with it if we are willing.
So that she can write in her diary:
Forsaking all others
through sickness and health
for better or worse
till death do us part.
And we can cheer for her.
560 - Diary of a Chambermaid, United States, 1946. Dir. Jean Renoir.
Only weak people sit around under trees wishing for things. It's better to do it yourself.
Celestine is talking to Captain Mauger, the master of the estate next door. Captain Mauger has just sat under the wishing tree, wishing out loud that Celeste would come to Paris with him and marry him.
But Celestine, chambermaid to the Lanlaire estate, recently sat under the same tree and wished that the heir, Georges Lanlaire, would take her to Paris and marry her.
It is July 14, the day of the annual celebration in Paris--what the movie does not explicitly call Bastille Day--and the mistress of the estate, Madame Lanlaire, has give the servants an hour in town to participate in the festivities.
Celestine and her fellow servant, the scullery maid Louise, were going to come with the valet Joseph, but he has stayed behind and encouraged them to go with Captain Mauger instead. Joseph wants Captain Mauger to be gone from his house so that Joseph can secretly enter it. Tomorrow he is going to take Celestine to Paris and marry her, and he has Mauger's money to take now that the Lanlaire silver is no longer available to him.
If you are keeping count of how many men might wish to take Celestine to Paris and marry her, you may add to your tally the Captain himself, Georges' father. He was the first one to make the offer.
In the beginning of our story, Celestine was riding the train from Paris, on her way to the country where the Lanlaire estate sits, preparing for her new job as their chambermaid.
While riding the train, she wrote in her diary.
May 15th
Today I am entering my new place, the twelfth in two years. What is wrong with me? I can certainly boast of having seen many houses and strange faces . . . and filthy souls.
We do not know what was wrong with her. We never get to see the old Celestine at work. Rather, we watch her transformed in the beginning of our movie, and we see the new Celestine from then on.
When she arrives at the station, Joseph meets her to pick her up. He asks for her references and he asks to see her hands. He is formal with her, and authoritative. He behaves as if he might be her new boss. But Celestine figures it out. She has been in the servant business too long to fall for that trick. And she noses him out for being the valet, just the valet, and nothing more. (Valet is pronounce with a voiced final t.)
So when he tries the same trick on the new scullery maid Louise, who has also just arrived at the station--apparently disembarking from a different train car--Celestine refuses to take it. Joseph rejects Louise based on her looks--she is plain--and tells her to take the train back to Paris. Louise states that she does not have the money. He tells her that is her problem. So Celestine stands up for Louise and informs Joseph that if the scullery maid is not being accepted, then the chambermaid is quitting too. Joseph walks to the wagon to consider it. Celestine is very beautiful. Joseph returns and accepts her demand. He takes them both.
For the first time, Celestine has stood up for herself. And she likes it.
She does it again when Joseph shows Celestine and Louise their bedroom, and it has only one bed. Louise offers to sleep on the floor, but Celestine demands that Joseph get her another bed.
After he leaves, she makes her decision. A life decision. Celestine is going to be somebody. Her own mistress. Not a servant. Not someone who takes orders. But someone who gives orders. She is going to find a master and get him to marry her.
So Celestine starts off on her new life's quest as a golddigger.
The first person she meets is Captain Lanlaire himself. The master of the estate. The boss. Only she thinks he is the cook. Partly because he comes and eats in the servants quarters. We learn pretty quickly that Madame Lanlaire wears the pants in the house--even though she wears beautiful formal dresses and gowns.
Celestine goes after Captain Lanlaire, yet when she gets him to invite her to Paris, she says he is just like all the other masters--which gets us to infer why she went through twelve estates in two years. And yet we see her in this case clearly instigate it. She openly wants his money.
And when she discovers that none of the money is in Lanlaire's name, she immediately switches to next-door-neighbor Captain Mauger, who does have money, and she works her lures on him. Despite his strangeness. Mauger is a Rumpelstiltskin, a manic sprite who eats flowers and throws rocks through windows. As he leaps and dances and throws, one expects him to start shouting "Ernest T. Bass! Ernest T. Bass!" Yet she happily goes after him when she thinks he has money.
Now we are here at the wishing tree, and Celestine is getting what she once wished for--the affection of a man of means--what seems all-to-easy for her to get from any man. But something has happened in the mean time.
She has fallen in love.
For real.
Not for money.
We know this because she writes in her diary.
Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges. Georges.
Georges is sick and may be dying. And his time in Paris has left him disillusioned and cynical. He has been away so long that Madame Lanlaire, the epitome of formal dignity, has practically thrust Celestine upon him by dressing her up in beautiful clothes and assigning to go on long walks with him.
It works, and Celestine sits under the wishing tree wishing for Georges, but Georges rejects her, or seems to, apparently not because he does not love her--he seems to love her very deeply--but because he is so overwhelmed by his feelings of hopelessness and futility.
The film is based on a novel by Octave Mirbeau, which was in turn adapted into a play by Andre Heuze and Thielly Nores.
The group of people who put the film together is really interesting.
Begin with Burgess Meredith. You know him as Rocky's manager Mickey in the first three Rocky movies (1976, 1979, 1982). He had a long and prolific career from the 1930s to the 1990s, and he established himself with his sixth film in the role of George in Lewis Milestone's version of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (1939).
Burgess Meredith wrote the screenplay and produced this film. He also played the role of the leprechaun-like Captain Mauger.
For the beautiful leading lady Celestine, he hired his own real-life wife, the movie star Paulette Goddard. Formerly married to Charlie Chaplin and his costar in Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1950). Bob Hope's sidekick in The Cat and the Canary (1939) and The Ghost Breakers (1940). She married rich, at 16, in real life, and would marry rich again in later life.
Dame Judith Anderson plays Madame Lanlaire. Imagine her as the strange Mrs. Danvers in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), or as Memnet in The Ten Commandments (1956), or as the Vulcan High Priestess in Star Trek III: Search for Spock (1984). Here she is not the head of the servants but the head of the house, and she carries herself with pride and decorum--until she gets her breakdown scenes near the end--one with her son Georges, pleading with him to stay and to love her, and the other with the valet Joseph, giving up her silver, and her security, to his demands.
Francis Lederer plays Joseph. He can be as stone-cold as Frankenstein's monster. Tall and measured and stoic. Celestine calls Joseph the Undertaker. Joseph tells Celestine they are both the same. That they look different on the outside, but inside they have the same heart. He is right when it comes to her first persona. They are both climbers, ruthless in their desire to take what they want in life.
Louise is played by none other than Irene Ryan, who would go on to play Granny in The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971). How funny that yesterday while watching The Southerner (1945), we observed that Beulah Bondi's riding on the back of the truck in her rocking chair reminded us of Irene Ryan's doing it seventeen years later. And then, here she is.
Jean Renoir films the movie with his typical brilliantly fluid, lyrical, and invisible camera movement. But he takes a departure from his usual realism. Yes, he observes class hierarchies, and one cannot watch this film without thinking of life in the chateau in The Rules of the Game (1939). But this one is a quirky comedy. It does not take itself very seriously, and it is a bit screwball.
This allows for the mercenary chambermaid to be transformed by love rather quickly and conveniently, but as entertainment goes we can go along with it if we are willing.
So that she can write in her diary:
Forsaking all others
through sickness and health
for better or worse
till death do us part.
And we can cheer for her.
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