Liliom (1934)

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Ferenc Molnár (play)
Bernard Zimmer (dialogue) ...

Release Date:

15 May 1934 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

Two women love the same man in a world of few prospects. In Budapest, Liliom is a "public figure," a rascal who's a carousel barker...

Plot Keywords:

Carousel | Love | Maid | Unemployment | Aunt

Cast

Charles Boyer	...	Liliom Zadowski
Madeleine Ozeray	...	Julie Boulard / The Daughter
Robert Arnoux	...	Le tourneur - The Strong Arm
Roland Toutain	...	Le marin - The Sailor
Alexandre Rignault	...	Hollinger
Henri Richard	...	Le commissaire - The Commissioner
Marcel Barencey	...	Le policier du Purgatoire - Purgatory Cop (as Barencey)
Raoul Marco	...	L'inspecteur - The Detective
Antonin Artaud	...	Le rémoleur - Knife Grinder
Léon Arvel	...	L'employé - Clerk
René Stern	...	Le cassier - Cashier
Mimi Funes	...	Marie (as Mimi Funès)
Maximilienne	...	Mme Menoux
Viviane Romance	...	La marchande de cigarettes - Cigarette Girl
Mila Parély	...	La dactylo - Typist

Also Known As:

Liliom (USA)

Runtime:

118 min | USA:85 min (edited version) | 118 min (DVD)

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Unrated

Company:

Les Productions Fox Europa

Trivia:

In his 1939 book about his Mexican travels, "The Lawless Roads", Graham Greene relates how the Mexican audiences prepared to walk out on the film when two forbidding-looking angels appeared, but settled back down to watch it when they realized that Heaven was going to be depicted in a humorous way.

Quotes:

[last lines]
The Daughter: Mother, did anyone ever hit you? I mean a real slap that you can hear ring, and you didn't feel a thing?
Julie: Yes, my child. There was a time when someone hit me, and I didn't feel a thing.
The Daughter: Then, it is possible for someone to hit you, and not hurt you at all?
Julie: Yes, my child. Someone can beat you, and beat you, without hurting you at all.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Turns on the Carousel (2006) (V)

Such a Marvelous Surprise!

Having tried and failed to sit through Carousel (a lumbering musical remake of the same story) I was wholly unprepared for the delight that is Liliom. A fantasy love story set half on Earth, half in Heaven, it's not at all the type of film you expect from Fritz Lang. It's closer in tone to Michael Powell or Jean Cocteau - and may be a 'hidden influence' on both A Matter of Life and Death and Orphee.

Not least among his achievements...Lang pulls off the well-nigh impossible feat of making Charles Boyer interesting! Sorry, but I'd always found this actor deeply resistible. A suburban housewife's stereotype of a suave Continental lover. But in this movie, Boyer plays a role that (even five years later) would have been reserved exclusively for Jean Gabin. A tough carnival barker and petty crook. A sexy 'bad boy' in a striped, clinging T-shirt and skin-tight jeans.

Boyer as Liliom is a Gallic cousin of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. I could well understand why Julie (Madeleine Ozeray) fell head over heels for him, because I did too. He treats her appallingly, of course. Boozing, whoring, gambling...even a (very non-PC) touch of wife-beating. For all its fantasy elements, this love story is as warped and sadomasochistic as any in later Lang movies, like Secret Beyond the Door or The Big Heat. (Hot coffee, anyone?)

Eventually, two angels show up and haul Boyer off to the hereafter - where he must atone for his sins! The term 'angels' is one I use loosely. Dark-suited, pale-skinned and shaven-headed, these two guys look like denizens of an X-rated Berlin nightclub. Kinkier still is Boyer's personal 'spirit guide' - a mad-eyed knife-grinder played by Antonin Artaud, the twisted genius who invented the Theatre of Cruelty.

Liliom is a rare treat for old-movie buffs. Lyrical and fantastic, yes. Soppy and sentimental, never. It stands comparison with Lang's best work from Berlin or Hollywood. I can only regret he did not spend more time in France.