A '50''s rarity: Gervaise

I must admit I have not read any of the great 19th century French novels (Balzac, Zola etc) where grim malevolent fates lay in store for the likes of Madam Bovary, Therese Raquin, Cousin Bette and of course Gervaise and her daughter Nana .... Maria Schell in Rene Clements' 1956 film GERVAISE delivers a great performance even if she smiles too much as everything conspires against her, but today's feminists would scream at her almost wilful complicitness in her own misfortune and putting up with those useless men who leech off her and not seeing through her rival Viriginie. Clements' film though has the complexity of a greart novel and its a marvellous recreation of 19th century Paris working class life.

Poor Gervaise has a limp, works in the laundry (there is a great extended fight scene), men use and abuse her, she can't be with the real man she loves, the roofer husband has an accident and takes to drink and sinks into a spiral of alcoholism and is soon using up all her money from her shop .... and she too sinks into drink as little Nana runs wild. Strong stuff ! This adaptation of Zola's L'Assommoir is a harrowing and somewhat excruciating tale of working-class Parisians in the mid-19th century. .

The film begins with Gervaise being left by her lover Lantier, leaving her with two young boys and she finds out everyone knew about his cheating. This leads to an extended cat fight when Gervaise is confronted by the other woman's sister, Virginie (Suzy Delair) at the laundry. Unfortunately for Gervaise, this incident has long-term ramifications for her.



Gervaise then marries the roofer Coupeau (Francois Perier) and they have a daughter Nana, but his roofing accident takes all their money, but his steadfast friend Goujet who quietly loves her, loans Gervaise the money to finally open her own laundry shop, but then Virginie returns with her own plan for revenge as she re-introduces Lantier.to the neighbourhood. Coupeau who is sinking into a spiral of drink becomes best friends with Lantier and even invites him to move in with them! Both men are soon using up the profits of Gervaise's shop, the disgusting Coupeau even pawning customers' sheets, while Lantier casually forces himself back on Gervaise whose shame kills her blossoming romance with Goujet. Finally the only solace for Gervaise is to hit the bottle herself.

Schell won the best actress award at the Venice film festival and was soon on her way to Hollywood. Clements had a good run of interesting films I like a lot: KNAVE OF HEARTS with Gerard Philipe in 1954, GERVAISE in '56, THE SEA WALL (or THIS ANGRY AGE) which I have written about here several times (Silvana Mangano label) in 1958 and PLEIN SOLEIL in 1960. His 60s successes included LES FELINS with Delon again and Jane Fonda, and the 1966 IS PARIS BURNING?

People We Like: Maurice Ronet

I have already blogged a lot here on Alain Delon, Jean-Paul Belondo and Jean Sorel (as per labels), but Maurice Ronet (1927-1983) is another fascinating French actor, and certainly the equal of Delon and Belmondo, Sorel probably being the most lightweight.

I first encountered Ronet in 1960 as Dickie Greenleaf in one of the first European films I saw back then, Rene Clement's PLEIN SOLEIL, from Highsmith's book which is one of my favourites. Delon had the more showy role, but Ronet captured Greenleaf perfectly. He had already done Malle's LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD in 1958 (see below) and appeared in other films like CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE being in films since the early '50s.

Ronet brought a complexity and depth to his roles, and an easy charm, even when featured as the lover in Chabrol's LA FEMME INFIDELE in 1968 - another one where he gets killed off, coming into close contact with a blunt object. Then there was that fatal re-union with Delon in LA PISCINE, Jacques Deray's glossy thriller from 1969, also with Romy Schneider, whom Ronet starred with in QUI? IN 1970 - a so-so thriller but with good roles for them. He was perfect with Jean Seberg in Chabrol's sunlit comedy thriller THE ROUTE TO CORINTH in 1967, and with Monica Vitti in THE SCARLET LADY in 1969 (as per my reviews on those, Vitti, Seberg, Schneider labels). He also featured in other international movies like Carl Foreman's THE VICTORS in 1963 and the all-star BLOODLINE (with Schneider again) in 1979, and part of Vadim's LA RONDE remake in 1964.



His best role though has to be in Malle's LE FEU FOLLET in 1963 as the recovering alcoholic Alain Leroy who is trying to find a reason to go on living. Its a profound, moving, complex masterwork - reviewed below. Ronet had quite a prolific career (as detailed on his profile at IMDB) and did a lot of routine films, as most actors do, but at his best he was supreme. He died in 1983 aged 55.

A Louis Malle double feature

Two of Louis Malle's early features, from that good box set [Vol 1] which also includes LES AMANTS and ZAZIE DANS LE METRO. Malle (who died in 1995 aged 63) began filming in the mid '50s with underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau, their first documentary being the well-received LE MONDE DU SILENCE in '56.

LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD – (or ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS to give it it’s American title). Louis Malle’s 1958 thriller ASCENSEUR POUR L'ÉCHAFAUD is still a fascinating experience as the plot spirals off in different directions. We have Jeanne Moreau endlessly wandering around Paris by night and in the rain looking for her missing lover (Maurice Ronet) who was supposed to kill her wealthy industrialist husband and join her, but he get trapped in the lift/elevator when the power is turned off, after the murder which he fakes to look like suicide. Can he escape? Meanwhile, his car is stolen by a teenage delinquent and his girl, who speed off and get involved with a German couple. We wonder why we are spending so much time with them, but this too leads to murder as the stories converge …. The spare Miles Davis soundtrack is cool beyond belief and Paris in 1958 looks the place to be. For me Malle (like Demy) is the most interesting of the New Wave directors [he was just 25 when directing this] and it is still a fascinating movie with Moreau and Ronet in their early prime. Marvellous black and white photography too by Henri Decae.



LE FEU FOLLET (THE FIRE WITHIN). This made such a big impression on me when I saw it aged 18 in 1964 that I did not need to see it again until now. It is surely Malle's most outstanding work, adapted from the Drieu La Rochelle story, with an Erik Satie soundtrack (so appropriate) and those luminous images by Ghislain Cloquet and with an astounding performance by Maurice Ronet. This and Bogarde's role in THE SERVANT are surely the outstanding performances of 1963. Ronet captures every facet as Alain Leroy, a playboy drying out at a private clinic who really finds nothing to live for once he is "cured". His alcoholic playboy is also a terminally depressed and finds life hollow and meaningless. Even the visiting friend of his ex-wife, whom he sleeps with and who writes him a cheque, cannot rouse him. He likes the routine at the clinic as we observe him in his room - notice the picture of Marilyn Monroe (a supposed recent suicide) and other newspaper features on death clipped to the wall... and the date scrawled on the mirror - the next day's date.


He decides on a whim to return to his old haunts in Paris to see if any of his old friends can be of any help in giving him a reason to go on living. Paris again in the early 60s looks marvellous as we linger at the Cafe Flore and the Brasserie Lipp. But Alain seems a shadow of his former jolly self to the barman and hotel staff he used to know. His best friend has settled into domesticity with a wife and child and is writing a book, he meets Jeanne Moreau, and Alexandra Stewart and her high society friends, and he starts drinking again. There is also that group of homosexuals who notice Alain and comment on how he has changed as one comments that a friend of theirs had been in love with him. It sounds depressing but it isn't really, and is a mesmerising film about suicide as a rational way out for a hollow man who is all used up and cannot see any point in continuing.... it is inevitable when back at his room to see him pack up his belongings and his life.



Malle went on to lots more varied films from the jollity of VIVA MARIA and the dramatic LACOMBE LUCIEN to those American classics like ATLANTIC CITY - LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD is a young man's film exploring what cinema can do, but LE FEU FOLLET remains a personal favourite that simply endures. A key '60s film too, comparable to THE SERVANT or BLOW-UP or BELLE DE JOUR.

I love Paris in the springtime when it sizzles...

Having done London in the Movies (London label) our thoughts turn to Paris, particularly now that it is April, and influenced by GOODBYE AGAIN (below), here are some random Paris moments, by day and night. Rome, soon ....

There is Tony Perkins driving around Paris in 1961 in GOODBYE AGAIN; Jean Seberg driving in BONJOUR TRISTESSE in '58; Corrine Merchand in CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (above), '61, waiting to hear her medical prognosis; Paul Newman, Joanne, Diahann Carroll again and Sidney in PARIS BLUES; Jeanne Moreau walking around Paris by night in LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD; Charles Aznavour and Jacques Charrier driving around trying to pick up girls (like Anouk Aimee and Belinda Lee) in LES DRAGUEURS; young Jean-Pierre Leaud in THE 400 BLOWS, both '59; Sophia Loren doing the twist (it is 1962) with Perkins again in FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT, GIGI learning about love..., that all star cast in IS PARIS BURNING? 1966; Charlotte Rampling in PARIS BY NIGHT, Tom Hanks at the Louvre in THE DE VINCI CODE, and of course the MOULIN ROUGE and any number of movies by Truffaut (LE PEAU DEUCE), Malle (LE FEU FOLLET, ZAZIE DANS LE METRO), Demy, Varda, Chabrol et al - Gerard Philipe and Anouk Aimee in their artists' garret in LES AMANTS DE MONTPARNASSE; Gina Lollobrigida and Anthony Quinn over at Notre Dame; Monica Vitti and Maurice Ronet dining at the Eiffel Tower in THE SCARLET LADY, '69; Romy Schneider, Capucine and O'Toole heading the madcap cast of WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT, '65 and of course Elizabeth looking stupendous in THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, '54 ! Then we have Belmondo and Seberg in BREATHLESS, and (below) Brialy and Gerard Blain in Chabrol's LES COUSINS, '59, and of course Fred and Cyd in SILK STOCKINGS, and over there is that super apartment which LES GIRLS shared (Kay Kendall, Mitzi Gaynor and Taina Elg) mind you that might have been on the MGM backlot. For extensive looks at Paris in the early '60s the extras on Varda's CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 or Malle's ZAZIE are choice.

So yes there's hundreds of movies set in Paris... of course there is Hollwood Paris and the real gritty city of light, as diverse as AMELIE, GARE DU NORD, Tati's PLAYTIME, Godard's ALPHAVILLE, the cartoon GAY PURR-EE, thrillers like LA HAINE, RIFIFI, LE FLIC and Polanski's FRANTIC and THE TENANT, QUIET DAYS IN CLICHY, VICTOR/VICTORIA and of course Garbo in the mythical Paris of NINOTCHKA, and all those French noirs with Gabin, Delon, Moreau, Schneider, Signoret etc, oh and some movie with Gene Kelly...



No one though did Paris in the Movies like Audrey Hepburn - so many of her movies are set in or have visits to Paree: FUNNY FACE, her cookery school in SABRINA and she returns all elegant from her year in Paris, HOW TO STEAL A MILLION where she and O'Toole tootle around in that little car, BLOODLINE, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON with Gary Cooper, in France at any rate in TWO FOR THE ROAD with Albie, PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES and of course CHARADE with her fabulous Givenchy outfits for hiding on the Metro or visiting the flea-market, or dining on a bateau mouche down the Seine with Cary Grant ...
I must now play that Malcolm McLaren CD PARIS with the likes of Juliette Greco, Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Hardy vocalising, and some terrific Parisian rhythms. [I have been to Paris about 20 times over the years, its convenient from London now by Eurostar, and one of my best friends was married and living there for over a decade...]