Les amants de Vérone (1949)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

André Cayatte

Writers:

André Cayatte (writer)
Jacques Prévert (dialogue)

Release Date:

7 March 1949 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Angelo, a glass-blower from Murano, and Georgia Maglia, the pretty daughter of a fascist magistrate...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman

Cast

Pierre Brasseur	...	Raffaele
Marcel Dalio	...	Amedeo Maglia
Serge Reggiani	...	Angelo (Romeo)
Louis Salou	...	Ettore Maglia
Martine Carol	...	Bettina Verdi
Roland Armontel	...	Blanchini
Charles Dechamps	...	Sandrini
René Génin	...	Le gardien du tombeau
Solange Sicard	...	Luccia Maglia
Claudye Carter	...	Clio
Marcel Pérès	...	Domini
Guy Favières	...	Le grand-père
Frédéric O'Brady	...	Un tueur
Max Dalban	...	Un tueur
Charles Blavette	...	Le patron de la verrerie

Also Known As:

The Lovers of Verona

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Verona, Veneto, Italy

Company:

Compagnie Industrielle et Commerciale Cinématographique (CICC)

Trivia:

In order to recapture the specific iridescent glow of Venetian palaces, talc was sprayed in the atmosphere and shooting proceeded before the powder fell down.

Grandly entertaining

Andre Cayatte was the director of many tiresome pictures in which he took moral positions on capital punishment (Nous sommes tous des assassins), the yellow press (Il n'y a pas de fumee sans feu), and just about any other issue that came to his attention. Now, we could dismiss him as just a French Stanley Kramer if he hadn't made films like this one in his younger days. It's a very highly-colored version of Romeo and Juliet in which Jacques Prevert's script dispenses with most of the play's story to concentrate on political comment. The Maglias are a very disturbed family indeed. Not only is the head an ex-fascist but the brother, played by Dalio, is hallucinating pretty freely (he had a bad war, we are told). Only Georgia, Ettore's daughter, played by the 16-year-old Anouk Aimee, has any quality of humor and generosity. The Romeo is played by Serge Reggiani, looking somehow a lot younger than he did in Casque d'or.

When we add Pierre Brasseur to the mix, things really get wild. He's playing a sort of Satanic figure, a demon of hate and revenge, as if trying to top his portrayal of the thug in Quai des brumes. There's a wierd sado-masochistic character to his relationship with the Maglias that I can't recall seeing before in film. He won't stop at murder to have Georgia as his wife. Cayatte's direction has pace and the lighting is especially fine--Alekan's camera really caresses the lover's faces.