Š-DR-LES PORTES DE LA NUIT de Marcel Carné (1946) p17

26/04/2014 16:53 par tellurikwaves

Well worth seeing
8/10
Author: Bob Taylor (bob998@sympatico.ca) from Canada
26 April 2013

This started out as a ballet choreographed by Roland Petit called Le Rendez-vous, with a libretto by Prevert and music by Kosma. This ballet was one of Petit's finest works and was in fact given a new production in Paris only last month (March 2013). Carne saw the possibilities in the story and had Prevert write the screenplay. No expense was spared, we are told, to recreate the world of Barbes-Rochechouart, with the replica of the Metro station built on set.

It is fashionable with some people to dismiss this film because Gabin and Dietrich aren't in it, or for some other reason having to do with politics, but I found it a wonderful experience. My only complaint is with Vilar's character, which was transferred from the ballet apparently, and is very tiresome indeed. His windy philosophizing only diminishes the enjoyment I felt in the story.(oui j'ai eu un peu de mal avec Vilar également...encore plus avec Nattier;et en ce qui concerne l'in-sup-por-table Carette (qui m'a gâché de nombreux films de l'époque,)j'ai tout bonnement éliminé au maximum les scènes où il sévit de ma version) 

The actors do a tremendous job. Saturnin Fabre as the father of Malou and Guy, with his fake expressions of affection for his long-lost daughter--she had spent some years singing in New York--and his reluctance to admit to his collaboration with the Germans gives a strong performance. Raymond Bussieres as the train driver is a wonderful foil for Montand. Serge Reggiani as Guy, the militia member who denounced Bussieres to the Gestapo is creepy and cynical.

He would have shot his father if the latter had tried to prevent him from escaping. Pierre Brasseur again shows us why he was one of the greatest actors in France: his businessman with the shady dealings that horrify his wife is very well crafted, given the small number of lines he has. Finally Montand and Nattier are not replacements for Gabin and Dietrich, they are better because younger and much less prone to give actorish performances.

You can see Montand working out how to play a scene. His responses are lively and right. Nattier looks great-every bit as glamorous as Dietrich, (moui faut pas déconner quand même!!) and she can sing too.  Her scene with Fabre sizzles with anger and disappointment. This movie is so much better than the limp confections that followed: La Marie du port, Therese Raquin, Le pays d'ou je viens, Les tricheurs and others. Carne was still fairly young and hadn't started to phone the work in.

Š-DR-LES PORTES DE LA NUIT de Marcel Carné (1946) p16

26/04/2014 16:42 par tellurikwaves

Š-DR-LES PORTES DE LA NUIT de Marcel Carné (1946) p15

26/04/2014 16:39 par tellurikwaves

Š-DR-LES PORTES DE LA NUIT de Marcel Carné (1946) p14

26/04/2014 16:29 par tellurikwaves

In through the out door.
9/10
Author: dbdumonteil
27 October 2004

"Les portes de la nuit" is an important movie ,weren't it only because it's Carné's last genuine unquestionable classic ,the last link on the chain which began with "Jenny" in 1936.All these works but one ("hotel du Nord, classic too anyway)" were written by Jacques Prevert :"drole de drame" "quai des brumes ""le jour se leve" "les visiteurs du soir " and the grandiose "les enfants du paradis" which currently makes the IMDb top 250 where it should be ,as it is in France, well ahead of "Leon" "Amelie" or "les quatre cents coups" if there were ,sometimes ,justice in the universe.

After "les enfants du paradis" -which was voted best French film of all time in a poll in 1979 -anything would ne a letdown.That's why the movie met mixed(and even chilly) critical reception when it was released.After the coming of the nouvelle vague whose young Turks used to hate "old hat" Carné ,one could have thought that "les portes de la nuit would be relegated to purgatory eternally.But young genrations have discovered it and a lot of people appreciate it now (as the IMDb rating shows).

Carne's eternal subject :love ,true love against the b.......s ,is here given just one night;one night to meet the most beautiful woman in the world ,but also one night to meet the war profiteers,the cowards ,the vile fathers,all that war destroyed .Carné's "realisme" is given a rough ride anyway ,for some settings are almost ...surrealist,evoking Greek tragedy .Prevert/Kosma's words to "les feuilles mortes" are wistful and deeply moving ;"la vie sépare ceux qui s'aiment tout doucement sans faire de bruit"(life comes between lovers ,gently,without a sound)

"Les portes de la nuit" ,what a wonderful title.the film begins at dusk,in a metro station that was entirely built in the studio.Carne thoroughly dismissed the label "realisme poetique" because none of his film sets was real (the "hotel du nord" ,the chateau in "les visiteurs du soir" ,the boulevard du crime" in "les enfants du paradis,the list is endless).And the movie ends at dawn ,when Paris awakes.

Carné would never achieve such a peak again.He made commendable works afterward ("Therese Raquin" "les tricheurs" )but those works do not "add up".Still,he remains through his 1936-1945 heyday,one of the absolute masters of the French cinema.

Š-DR-LES PORTES DE LA NUIT de Marcel Carné (1946) p13

26/04/2014 09:38 par tellurikwaves

Photo du bas :Saturnin Fabre : M. Sénéchal

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Š-DR-LES PORTES DE LA NUIT de Marcel Carné (1946) p12

26/04/2014 09:31 par tellurikwaves

Don't be too quick to give this the gate

Author: writers_reign from London, England
24 October 2003

Usually I don't comment on previous comments however misguided or uninformed they may be but in this case I must refer to the only other comment that has been posted if only to explain to our Canadian correspondent the difference between an individual song heard within a movie and a movie 'score'.

The score of a given film embraces every note of background music from beginning to end credits and whilst on occasion(In 'Breakfast At Tiffany's'for example composer Hank Mancini wrote an individual song, 'Moon River', with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, which Audrey Hepburn sang at one point) an individual song may be highlighted it is erroneous to refer to that song as the 'score' of the film (to continue with the BAT illustration, Mancini's background score was, at times, lilting and some time later a second single song, 'Lovers In New York' was published, using Mancini's background music).

Whilst it is true that scriptwriter Jacques Prevert's poem, Les Feuilles Mortes, set to music most memorably by long-time collaborator Joseph Kosma, IS heard (though not to completion) in the film it is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a 'score'. As it happens a second Prevert poem,Les Enfants qui s'aiment(Children Who Love)is also heard in snatches in this great movie though ironically neither is sung by Yves Montand, who went on to 'own' Les Feuilles Mortes and also recorded Les Enfants qui s'aiment unforgettably on his 'Montand Chante Prevert' album. But what of the movie itself.

It started with one strike on it; Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich, for whom the two leading roles had been tailored by Prevert, ankled shortly before shooting commenced so Carne tapped the inexperienced (in acting) Montand and the justifiably soon forgetten Nathalie Nattier as deps. As if that weren't enough the film was packaged as the most expensive ever made in France so expectations were high.

We now have to consider the climate against which it was shot and made. We're talking 1946, lots of uneasiness in the air concerning collaboration, black marketeering, etc.Prevert gives us a fantasy -Montand meets a bum on the Metro who claims he is Destiny personified and predicts that Montand will meet later that same day the most beautiful woman in the world but after one mayfly moment he will lose her again - but a fantasy laced with the realism of black marketeering, post-war austerity, hints of collaboration.

It was, arguably, the wrong theme at the wrong time and the egg it laid was such that it broke up the partnership of Prevert-Carne (who had just come off 'Les Enfants du Paradis') who had invented the concept of poetic realism and given the world such gems as Le jour se leve, Quai des brumes, les visiteurs du soir, etc.Seen today it is much easier to concentrate on its strenghs and delight in the first fledgling steps towards 'Great Actor' status taken by Yves Montand. In sum: a gem. ten stars, no question.

Š-DR-LES PORTES DE LA NUIT de Marcel Carné (1946) p11

26/04/2014 09:19 par tellurikwaves

Š-DR-LES PORTES DE LA NUIT de Marcel Carné (1946) p10

26/04/2014 09:16 par tellurikwaves

Production/Genèse

Lors de la mise en place du projet, le couple vedette devait être interprété par Jean Gabin et Marlène Dietrich. Celle-ci s'étant désistée, Marcel Carné la remplace par Nathalie Nattier (qui joue comme mes genoux)et lui donne comme partenaire, sur les conseils d’Édith Piaf, Yves Montand alors jeune chanteur en plein triomphe au Théâtre de l'Étoile.

Tournage
Période prises de vue : 11 janvier au 7 septembre 1946.
Intérieurs : aux studios de Joinville et rue Francœur avec décor du canal et de la station de métro Barbès-Rochechouart.
Extérieurs : Paris (station de métro Barbès-Rochechouart, 18e art.).

Accueil
Le film n'a pas eu un grand succès lors de sa sortie en France, et a été mal reçu par les critiques. Il est sorti quatre ans plus tard aux États-Unis sous le titre Gates of the night.Les Portes de la Nuit… ou Les Portes de l'Ennui, selon Henri Jeanson.

Autour du film
Dernière collaboration entre Marcel Carné et Jacques Prévert.

Š-DR-LES PORTES DE LA NUIT de Marcel Carné (1946) p9

26/04/2014 09:06 par tellurikwaves

Jean Vilar : le clochard / le Destin

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Chansons du film

Š-DR-LES PORTES DE LA NUIT de Marcel Carné (1946) p8

26/04/2014 09:00 par tellurikwaves

Nathalie Nattier : Malou Sénéchal & Pierre Brasseur : Georges