Le jour se lève (1939)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Marcel Carné

Writers:

Jacques Viot (original scenario)
Jacques Prévert (dialogue)

Release Date:

29 July 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

Francois, a sympathetic factory worker, kills Valentin with a gun. He locked himself in his furnished...

Plot Keywords:

Dog | Murder | Factory | Marriage Proposal | Singer

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Jean Gabin	...	François
Jules Berry	...	M. Valentin
Arletty	...	Clara
Mady Berry	...	La concierge
René Génin	...	Le concierge (as Genin)
Arthur Devère	...	Mr. Gerbois (as Arthur Devere)
René Bergeron	...	Le patron du café (as Bergeron)
Bernard Blier	...	Gaston
Marcel Pérès	...	Paulo (as Peres)
Germaine Lix	...	La chanteuse
Gabrielle Fontan	...	La vieille dame dans l'escalier
Jacques Baumer	...	Le commissaire
Jacqueline Laurent	...	Françoise

Also Known As:

Daybreak (USA)

Runtime:

93 min | Germany:86 min | USA:88 min (Janus print) | Argentina:87 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Wide Range Sound System)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 (bw) | Sweden:15

Company:

Sigma

Quotes:

M. Valentin: You're the type women fall in love with . . . I'm the type that interests them.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Silent Trigger (1996)

Before the flood.

That was one of the last French masterpieces of the thirties just before the war.Marcel Carné was accused of pessimism and the movie was quickly forbidden by the military censorship that used to say in 1940:"if we've lost the war,blame it on "Quai des Brumes""(Carné's precedent movie.The director answered:"you do not blame a barometer for the storm"). "Le jour se lève " is,if it's possible,darker than its predecessor. From the very beginning,the hero,a good guy (Gabin) is doomed,his fate is already sealed,because the tragedy has already happened .That's why the movie is a long flashback.The memories are brought back on the screen with an astounding virtuosity by some elements of the set (the teddy bear for instance).Only three main characters outside that of Gabin,the evil one (Berry who was to play the devil in "les visiteurs du soir "1942),the lucid one (Arletty) and the ambiguous one (Jacqueline Laurent).The latter provides

the only flaw of the movie:Laurent acts Françoise as the innocent pure girl,however Carné leaves no doubt about her relations with Berry. A remake was made by Anatole Litvak with Henry Fonda ,Barbara Bel Geddes and Ann Dvorak (who must have been studying Arletty's acting for a long while),called "the long night" with an absurd happy end. Needless to say,it's the French Carné movie that you've got to see!