Learning that it was fellow IMDber manfromplanetx birthday soon,I looked for a film to give as a small gift they could enjoy. Having found the movie with English subtitles online months ago (and keeping it "saved") along with having enjoyed reading dbdumonteil's review, it looked like the right moment to unveil the beach.
View on the film:
A decade before the movement got into full flow, director Yves Allegret & cinematographer Henri Alekan build a sandcastle between the poetic Film Noir's of the 30's and 40's,and the realism of the French New Wave in the late 50's. Closely working with sound team Jacques Carrere and Pierre-Louis Calvet , Allegret creates an incredibly haunting sound design, pelting the hotel roof with rain which lands like gunshots, and lone creaks from doors opened in the hotel room, listened to by the residence as if part of a espionage mission. Sticking a spade into the beach with a breath-taking final shot, Allegret and Alekan display a delicate quality springing from FNW-style long panning shots catching the fellow hotel guests and staff taking a sly glance at Pierre, to brewing a icy Film Noir atmosphere of a ill-looking Pierre sleeping over dissolves,joined by the outside bullets of rain falling into Pierre embrace with Marthe.
Entering the hotel looking like he is at deaths door, the screenplay by Jacques Sigurd brilliantly matches Allegret's stylisation,in the characterization of Pierre, who Sigurd has netted between the the ridden with pessimism Noir loner of the 30's/40,with the bruised, outsider rebel streak of the FNW. Unable to take their eyes off Pierre, Sigurd cleverly circles the staff/fellow guests at the hotel to cast the ghostly image of Pierre, glowing from the simmering with menace clipped dialogue of fellow "guest" Fred,and the lone hands of empathy offered by Marthe.
The lone person in the washed out town to reach out, the elegant Madeleine Robinson gives a exquisite turn as Marthe, whose own worn-down past is cut open by Robinson to slowly entangle Marthe with Pierre, whilst Jean Servais plays for the creeping slow-burn as Fred. Permanently haunted by his past, Gerard Philipe gives a mesmerising, expressive performance as Pierre,whose every look back is carried by Philipe like a ghost,fading away on such a pretty little beach.
View on the film:
A decade before the movement got into full flow, director Yves Allegret & cinematographer Henri Alekan build a sandcastle between the poetic Film Noir's of the 30's and 40's,and the realism of the French New Wave in the late 50's. Closely working with sound team Jacques Carrere and Pierre-Louis Calvet , Allegret creates an incredibly haunting sound design, pelting the hotel roof with rain which lands like gunshots, and lone creaks from doors opened in the hotel room, listened to by the residence as if part of a espionage mission. Sticking a spade into the beach with a breath-taking final shot, Allegret and Alekan display a delicate quality springing from FNW-style long panning shots catching the fellow hotel guests and staff taking a sly glance at Pierre, to brewing a icy Film Noir atmosphere of a ill-looking Pierre sleeping over dissolves,joined by the outside bullets of rain falling into Pierre embrace with Marthe.
Entering the hotel looking like he is at deaths door, the screenplay by Jacques Sigurd brilliantly matches Allegret's stylisation,in the characterization of Pierre, who Sigurd has netted between the the ridden with pessimism Noir loner of the 30's/40,with the bruised, outsider rebel streak of the FNW. Unable to take their eyes off Pierre, Sigurd cleverly circles the staff/fellow guests at the hotel to cast the ghostly image of Pierre, glowing from the simmering with menace clipped dialogue of fellow "guest" Fred,and the lone hands of empathy offered by Marthe.
The lone person in the washed out town to reach out, the elegant Madeleine Robinson gives a exquisite turn as Marthe, whose own worn-down past is cut open by Robinson to slowly entangle Marthe with Pierre, whilst Jean Servais plays for the creeping slow-burn as Fred. Permanently haunted by his past, Gerard Philipe gives a mesmerising, expressive performance as Pierre,whose every look back is carried by Philipe like a ghost,fading away on such a pretty little beach.