on 12/3/2024, 10:39 am
It’s a work day, so there are only three movies…but it is three with a cinematic giant – Jean Gabin.
LEUR DERNIERE NUIT aka THEIR LAST NIGHT (Georges Lacombe 1953) kicks off the evening. A thirtyish woman, Madeleine (Madeleine Robinson), moves to Paris in search of a teaching job. She moves into a boarding house and, as Fate would have it, one of the tenants, Pierre (Jean Gabin) is director of a city library. He is able to find her a teaching position. She, of course, is grateful and develops romantic notions.
Unbeknownst to her at the time, Pierre is also the leader of a Paris crime gang. A crime goes awry, Pierre has to go into hiding, and Madeleine is able to assist. An escaped plan to Belgium is hatched. But, once again, film noir being film noir, something just may not go right. Is there ever an escape from Fate?
Robinson has a much kinder, gentler character here than in yesterday’s PIEGE POUR CENDRILLON. And, what can one say about Gabin other than superbe, splendide, magnifique.
And it gets better as the night continues.
“Misfortune becomes you.” Such is the lesson learned in LA VERITE SUR BEBE DONGE aka THE TRUTH OF OUR MARRIAGE (Henri Decoin 1952), starring two of film noir’s finest, Jean Gabin and Danielle Darrieux, in a tale adapted from Georges Simenon.
Francois (Gabin) is near death in an all-white hospital room. He asks to see his wife, Bebe (Darrieux). “Simple food poisoning,” says the doctor. Bebe is in black. Thus begins our shuttle between the present day and the ten-year journey of a marriage.
Francois and his brother are wealthy entrepreneurs outside of Paris. His brother, Georges, is about to marry. Francois is a serial philanderer. Francois meets his soon-to-be sister-in-law’s sister, Bebe, and it becomes a double wedding.
The marriage appears, from the outside, to be ideal, but our view shifts as we watch…just as our empathy shifts from Francois to Bebe. And back. And back again with the continued philandering and a hospital bed profession of love and commitment. It was “simple food poisoning,” if that includes poison ingested with food.
The story marvelously discloses a noir paradox: if Georges dies, Bebe is condemned to die; if Georges lives, Bebe is condemned to live. Either spells Doom. Bebe’s black attire may represent her role as the Angel of Death, or the Avenging Angel. I’ll go with her simply being dressed as a mourner…mourning her Fate in this domestic film noir melodrama.
A wind-swept rural truck stop during daylight. Not the typical opening of a film noir, especially a French film noir, but that is where Henri Verneuil places us in DES GENS SANS IMPORTANCE (1956). And, as Jean (Jean Gabin) takes a rest from his driving a big rig, the flashback begins.
Jean and his driving partner pull over for a rest at their usual truck stop. This time there is a young waitress, Clo (Francoise Arnoul) who seems different to Jean than the typical young waitress. Despite the difference in their ages, a mutual emotional and physical bond develops. His frequent, inexplicable (except for their clandestine meetings) layovers at the truck stop result in him being fired. She goes to Paris, his home, to find a better job and to be nearer to him. She learns that working as a maid at a brothel for salary and “tips” is not the preferred way. His family – wife and three children – find out about about Clo. Jean and Clo try to escape, but there is none. At least none for those who are, as the title states, people of no importance.
Gabin can do it all on the screen. There is, however, something special about the proletarian Gabin. His and Arnoul’s characters are the perfectly matched mismatched noir pair. Generating empathy, sympathy, and a desire to slap some sense into their skulls all at the same time. Amour fou wrapped in a dark domestic melodrama. This, for me, is film noir at highest depth.
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