La lumière d'en face (1955)

Director:

Georges Lacombe

Writers:

Jean-Claude Aurel (story)
Louis Chavance (writer)

Release Date:

30 December 1955 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

More Woman than any man can handle!

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Female Nudity

Cast

Raymond Pellegrin	...	Georges Marceau
Roger Pigaut	...	Pietri
Brigitte Bardot	...	Olivia Marceau
Claude Romain	...	Barbette
Jean Debucourt	...	Le professeur Nieumer
Antonin Berval	...	Albert
Guy Piérauld	...	Antoine (as Guy Pierrault)
Lucien Hubert	...	Gaspard
Daniel Ceccaldi	...	L'amoureux en panne
Christine Gouze-Rénal	...	L'inconnue dans la voiture
Jacques Gauthier	...	Doctor
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joé Davray
Hennery
Jean-François Martial

Also Known As:

Female and the Flesh (USA) (reissue title)
The Light Across the Street (USA)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Studios de la Victorine - 16 avenue Edoard Grinda, Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Company:

Les Productions Jacques Gauthier

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies (2001)

One of BB's best parts.

Georges Lacombe 's most famous works are certainly "le dernier des six" (1941)which owes a lot to HG Clouzot,"Martin Roumagnac" where Gabin teamed with Marlene Dietrich -but as a seed merchant ,she was miscast!- and "le pays sans étoile which has become very hard to see.

"La lumière d'en face' is one of these little gems which should not be missed.Crazy it certainly is ,as the precedent user says ,but not crazier than "the postman always rings twice" which it sometimes recalls.Brigitte Bardot and her impotent(!)husband run a small restaurant:across the road,two men run a gas station.Most of the time,and because of a diversion/detour,this quartet is on his own.

More than Roger Vadim and his mediocre " et Dieu créa la femme" it's actually Georges Lacombe who revealed Brigitte Bardot's sensuality and intense erotic potential.BB brought a new form of erotism,with her spontaneity,her absence of hypocrisy and she managed to stay very natural because of Lacombe's excellent direction.Things were to get wrong afterwards with Vadim's disastrous turkeys.But it emrged again,notably in HG Clouzot's "la vérité" and Louis Malle's "vie privée" and "Viva Maria".

The film has a very good male cast too.Raymond Pellegrin -who was the hero of the first (and best ) version of "Manon des sources"- ,in a thankless part ,plays a neurotic man eaten with desire,sometimes recalling Van Heflin;Roger Pigault plays the handsome gas station man who of course covets the wife.But more than the story ,it's the atmosphere that matters :a sultry place,with the insects noise and four human beings about to explode.

The movie has a prologue and an epilogue which are downright embarrassing:it was obviously intended to lecture,to edify the audience .It was probably imposed on Lacombe by his producers for fear the censorship may be infuriated ,because this is a rather risky movie.

SPOILER: If we forget these ridiculous "warnings " which frame the movie,the first sequence shows Pellegrin's shadow on the wall :he's got a gun and he's about to fire.Then a long flashback .Then a stunning finale during which Pellegrin goes off his nut.It was intended to be an absolute film noir.